


School for the Magically Gifted

by cptbauman



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, HeadmistressAU, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:02:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27578902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cptbauman/pseuds/cptbauman
Summary: When self-proclaimed loner Lucy Ashley receives a large inheritance from her late estranged father, she wants to put the 'blood money' to good use. Opening the new Magnolia school for teenage runaways who possess magic like herself, she opens herself up to friends she didn't even know she could make. But how long will she be able to keep the skeletons in her closet hidden?
Relationships: Levy McGarden/Gajeel Redfox, Lucy Heartfilia & Levy McGarden, Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia, Romeo Conbolt/Wendy Marvell
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've already posted most of this story over on FF.net. I thought it was finally time, with 30K already written, to start posting it on here. Updates here will be regular. I hope you enjoy 'School for the Magically Gifted'.

_"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."_

**_-Niccolo Machiavelli_ **

Magnolia's School for the Magically Gifted - or 'MagMa' as the kids affectionately named the 8200 square feet of land located in the south-west Magnolia area - held home to hundreds of kids all year round as the majority of attendees didn't think of anywhere else as home. In the three years, the school had existed, approximately five hundred and thirty kids had graduated, all with their GEDs and an extended qualification in Magic Arts of some specification.

The school had been founded by young Magnolia University graduate Lucy Ashley. With a Masters in Business and an earlier major in English Teaching, the then twenty-three-year-old aspiring blonde had put her brains to what she deemed to be a more meaningful way to spend her roaring twenties. Forget a gap year building wells in some underprivileged town in the East, Miss Lucy Ashley had wanted to help those she saw every day - Children of ages to their late teens jailed or in some Juvy correctional facility to be forever labeled as some no-good miscreant.

It wasn't something she'd really thought about until she'd suddenly come into a lot of money, courtesy of her Father's inheritance - a man she hadn't seen in a good number of years due to her own attempt to distance the two. Her relationship with her father wasn't something that manifested often. After some difficult years following her mother's passing, Lucy had decided that her father's shadow wasn't one she wanted to live under. So, she'd moved out. Halfway through an unusually chilly night in July, the young teen had snuck out her bedroom window, only three floors up from the gardens of the primary mansion on the Heartfilia estate.

Yup. The Heartfilia Estate. The very Heartfilias that ran the train lines all over central Fiore. She hadn't heard from Jude Heartfilia since the night of her departure. Her last words to him were something along the lines of a quiet goodnight before escaping to her bedroom to put in place the final steps of her escape from a life of patriarchal bullshit and unnecessarily expensive dresses. Whatever their last conversation was, she didn't remember and nor did she care to try.

She'd heard of her father's death unexpectedly one day when grabbing a coffee from her famous on-campus coffee place at Magnolia Uni. 'Acalypha Billionaire and Business Tycoon Jude Heartfilia Found Dead in Office after Heart Attack.' Was all she'd read on the tiny cheap black tv bolted to the countertop before she'd walked out, not sparing a single glance to the silently glaring still image of the late businessman.

She'd just walked, not really thinking or taking much care as to where she might be going. She'd walked the quiet streets of Magnolia, the place she considered a safe haven from her father's control until the sharp ring of her mobile had finally caught her attention.

"Hello, my name's Meredy, I'm from Grimoire Heart. I'm calling to speak with Miss Lucy Ashley?" A young angelic voice spoke through the phone. The blonde hadn't realized how far she'd walked, having only now looked up to register that she'd ended up in Magnolia Park, right under the huge cherry blossom trees, the ones famous for their extraordinary rainbow blossom.

"Um, that's me," Lucy responded after a couple of moments of silent contemplation. There was only one reason why someone from the biggest law firm in Fiore would be ringing her unless she'd somehow accidentally parked her shitty little Ford Focus in the Car Park of some major Business again.

"I regret to inform you, Miss Ashley, that your father has recently passed." Yeah, just as she'd suspected. "I'm calling in regards to the completion of his last will. Jude Heartfilia was your father, correct?"

"Yeah, that's correct." She didn't want to have to deal with her father any more than she had to. She wanted this over as quickly as possible.

"Are you able to come into our offices to sort out the transition of effects? If needs be, we can always mail you the documents for you to sign and send back. A cheque and deed papers will be sent at a later date."

"Wait, wait. What exactly have I inherited? I haven't talked to that man in years. I'm not even a Heartfilia anymore."

"The effects in his will are stated for a Miss Lucy Ashley. Any name change at this time isn't relevant beyond proof of identification, which you'll send back along with the signed forms."

"Excuse me for being so direct, but what exactly has he left me?" The question had been burning her mind since she'd seen that News report in the Coffee shop. She wasn't aware that her father knew of her name change. Did that mean he'd been watching her all this time? Or had he not bothered to check on her whereabouts or safety status besides the need for the legal documents. Had he let her run away all these years just to land her with a shit-tonne of legal crap? A young woman already being crushed with student loans, why not get revenge by putting even more financial pressure for whatever debts he'd assumed over the years?

"Fifteen Billion U.S. Dollars, Miss Ashley. He's also left a large portion of his estate to you, although some of it is in slight disrepair, according to the estate deed reports."

Fifteen. Fucking. Billion. Dollars.

What the actual hell…

"Sherria Blendy, please report to the Headmistress' office." The tannoy echoed through the old winding halls of MagMa. Walking through those halls was Dragneel, lecturer, and grad-student of Magnolia University's Astronomy Department. He'd been invited into Magma in a letter sent by the Headmistress herself, Miss Lucy Ashley. Everyone in Magnolia knew that woman's name, whether they hated her for 'encouraging' delinquent teenage mages into Magnolia or whether they revered her for her humanity. Natsu Dragneel was part of the latter crowd. She was by no means a celebrity, nor did she care to publicize her life in any way. As far as Dragneel was concerned, this woman was just some random person with enough money to take in kids and did so with no obligation, just out of the kindness of her heart. That was what mattered to him.

This was the first time Natsu found himself walking through the large corridors of the prestigious Magnolia School for the Magically Gifted. Every corner of this place was filled with groups of children ranging from ten to eighteen, all of them happy, all of them proudly holding textbooks to their chest. He couldn't help but smile at the number of kids who had clearly found their home here, having been either kicked out of their own home or had run away themselves. These kids were special, these kids were magical, and he wasn't the only one who could see this.

Having already signed in at the front desk, Natsu Dragneel was free to roam the grounds until his lecture at three-thirty that afternoon. And roam he would do. The amount of money and (more importantly) time that had gone into this place was astounding. The land this place was built on had previously been Magnolia's Grand Castle and Cathedral from the very old days when the Monarchy was still a prominent feature of Fiore. Now the Monarchs had way less control over the country, choosing to withdraw their diplomatic power to Crocus. Since the desertion of the place, minus the odd historical drama being filmed, the place had been left to become derelict. Then, three and a half years ago, building suddenly started up. Work was being done on the castle, and news was rapidly spreading of this new school for Magic. The renovations were finished within half a year. Rumors had been going around that this swift build was thanks to the new owner hiring the best builders in town. The place was now missing those obnoxious steeples and statues, managing to look graceful yet fitting amongst the surrounding architecture, a description Natsu would soon learn applied to the headmistress and owner.

Each classroom he'd seen was brimming with silent studious kids. Every wall held a place for some child's achievement or a poster for one of many extra-curricular activities. This school was built for the students and was very much used for that purpose. The school resided in the main building of the castle, a large enough space for all the individual department classrooms of magic and regular subjects. The external cathedral housed the kids that boarded here, having either a home too far away to commute to and from daily or having come from no home at all.

As he made his way through visiting each subject department and classroom, he soon found his way onto the dueling pitches at the back of the school. Currently on the pitch was what he could only assume to be a class with their teacher practicing dueling etiquette, and a couple other groups of kids stood around showing off spells separate from that class. He watched the teacher as he and one of the classmates stood parallel, three feet apart - a note Natsu himself remembered from his lessons with his foster father. They bowed to each other before striking similar poses - the teacher's a little more refined than the students. As both users summoned their magics a loud boom sounded from back at the school building. Everyone drew their attention to a large window on the third floor where glass now flew in every direction from. A strong wind was picking up, following a small girl running from the falling debris. This girl had jumped from the top floor of the castle!

The winds grew stronger, powerful enough to be messing the hair of everyone on the pitches as they watched in bewilderment at the building ability.

"Sherria!" Someone shouted from the now empty window space. The voice shouted again, now moving carefully down the easy steps provided by the stuck out ledges of the castle walls, each foot, and handhold seeming intentionally placed, like an attempt of a quick escape route should anything happen. And something was happening. A short blonde was following the scarpering child, stopping suddenly as the child did. The woman was now ten feet away from Natsu as he contemplated whether or not to intervene. This woman evidently knew this child and surely had at least some brains behind her recklessness. It wasn't his place to stick his nose where he wasn't wanted or needed. "Sherria, please! Just listen to me!"

"What's there to listen to?! You already said this school can't help me!" The girl was upset and screaming at the older woman. Her hot pink locks were practically blinding her as the wind around her picked up.

So she was the source of the wind.

"Sherria, that's not what I meant!" It was getting hard for the blonde to stay on her feet. "You have so much power, but I think you're ready to move on! I have links at Crocus College. They're willing to take you on scholarship based on your S.A.T. Scores alone! That's a major achievement for a sixteen-year-old! You shouldn't be sitting those until you're eighteen!"

"So you can't handle me anymore? Is that it?!" The girl was getting increasingly stressed, allowing her wind magic to lift her a half meter above the Ballfield dirt.

"Gods, Sherria! I would never say that! I would love for you to stay, but you have so much potential! It would be a waste of your talent to stay!" She wasn't getting anywhere, and Natsu watched as the blonde tried over and over to explain to the uncontrollable girl that she wasn't being kicked out. He was on the verge of stepping in before the woman finally broke their cycle of pointless trying. "I was so much like you, Sher! When I was your age, I didn't have my Mom to explain this stuff to me! I was so lost without her, and I never want you to feel like you don't belong here! If you want to stay, I won't stop you. But every second you spend here, you could be spending becoming the greatest witch Crocus has ever seen!"

"Y-you lost your Mom too?" The girl's attention was solely focused on the older woman, and the winds were finally losing their strength.

"That's not important right now, Kiddo." The pink-ette's feet met the ground and in seconds were racing towards her mentor. Her tiny arms wrapped around the blonde, squeezing her tight.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lose control, Lucy." She mumbled into the woman's grey pantsuit.

Lucy... As in Lucy Ashley? This blonde, who was no taller than 5'4", was in charge of the entire school? Half the students were taller than her yet she had them eating out the palm of her tiny pale hand!

"How about you head back to my office and grab that hot cocoa that's waiting on my desk for you. I'll be up there after I've talked to maintenance about that window." Lucy patted the kid gently on the back before watching her skip off.

"Good work there. With the kid, I mean," Natsu spoke up, half-tongue tied by watching the situation de-escalate so quickly. He took a couple of steps towards the blonde as she turned her attention to him.

"Um, thanks." She looked a little taken aback by his abrupt comment to a stranger. She slipped her phone out of the pocket of her pantsuit jacket before taking a second look at the pink-haired guy's face. "You're Natsu Dragneel, right? That astronomy lecturer over at Mag-U."

"Yeah. And you're Miss Ashley?" He stepped closer, offering his hand, which she gladly took.

"Please, Lucy's fine. I don't even let the kids call me 'Miss Ashley'. Way too formal for my liking." Her smile seemed friendly and welcoming, continuing as she briefly excused herself to make a phone call. "Sorry, I just needed to sort that window out before the next smashing."

She turned her attention back to him.

"Sounds like window-smashing happens often?" He laughed at the awkward smile she offered at his observation.

"Once or twice a week, I'm afraid. Though usually, it's not so intentional. Normally the chem-lab screws up an experiment and blows through the ceiling."

"Shit, must be expensive." The quick glare he received was enough for him to make a mental note never to swear in front of Lucy again. "Sorry. I'm used to having a much older demographic of students. I promise not to swear in front of the kids."

"I'm sure these kids know a lot worse than that." She let loose a genuine giggle at that, surprising Natsu with her less-than uptightness. He returned the laugh, his hand shooting to the back of his neck in a nervous habit.

"Walk with me? I'm sure Sherria is wondering where I've got to, and I'd rather not leave her hanging." She began walking back towards the building, Natsu falling into a natural step beside her. "How'd you like teaching at Mag-U then?"

"It's great there. A bit weird to see teenagers sat in the same places I used to hang, but that's life, I guess."

"Oh, no way. You went to Mag-U too?!" Her eyes lit up at the mention of her old home.

"Yeah. Studied under old man Makarov. What'd you study?"

"He was head of that Fairy Tail society, right?"

"How'd you know? I never saw you there?"

"Yeah, I was kind of too focused on my studies to make too many friends." Another nervous laugh made its way up her throat. "But my dorm mate was in it. She and I are still best friends to this day. Levy McGarden, do you know her?"

"Small world. She's dating my cousin, Gajeel." They stopped in front of an indistinct wooden door, no different than the rest further down the hall.

"I'm afraid this is my stop, Dragneel."

He was surprised to find that her office entrance was no grander than the rest of the doors in the school. Only a small plaque beside the doorway reading 'Lucy. A'

"'Dragneel?' I knew you were informal, but that's a bit much even for you, I'm guessing." He gave a confident smirk, which morphed into more of a smile as he saw her shocked reaction when she noticed the teasing look.

"Call it payback for Gajeel calling me 'bunny-girl' all these years. I never did understand that nickname." She mumbled the last sentence with it being more of a personal query than an open discussion point. "Anyway, I'm sorry, but I've got to head in. It was nice talking to you, though. Will you be able to find your way to the lecture theatre?"

"Yeah, 'course. One quick thing, though." He caught her arm before she could turn to enter her office. "Maybe get out a bit more. I'm not saying you're weird in any way, so you can stop giving me that look." She laughed at that. "I'm just saying that you're not at uni anymore, and you clearly do so much for these kids that you probably don't do a lot for yourself. Just hang out with mates more often. Relax."

"I'll take that under advisement, Dragneel." He waved a quick hand in goodbye, watching as she smiled in return before slipping through the doorway, leaving him alone to waste the little time he had before his lecture.

Closing the door gently, Lucy took a moment to breathe. It wasn't every day that the busty young blonde that kept to herself would hit it off with somebody.

"So?" Sherria questioned, interrupting the woman from her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Oh, C'mon," Sherria smirked at her mentor's density. "I could hear everything. You have the hots for that teacher!"

"Wait, what?!" Lucy tried her hardest not to stutter as she felt her entire control over the spreading blush slip.

"You totally do!"

"Woah, Woah. I don't even know the guy," Sherria tried to interrupt, but Lucy was having none of it, so the pink-ette just settled for a suspecting smirk as her teacher continued. "Can we get onto the matter at hand, please? Crocus Uni faculty are expecting your application and personal statement by the end of the week."

* * *

**Thanks for reading Chpt.1 'School for the Magically Gifted'. I know this chapter is only 3K, but I'll be sure to make the rest of the chapters longer. This is the first multi-chapter fic I'm attempting in a long time. Don't forget to follow, like, and review!**


	2. Chapter 2

_"The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it."_

**_― J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan_ **

The bass of the speakers only added to the pounding already present in the blonde's temples. She'd end up with a migraine if she wasn't careful, and that wasn't what she needed during tomorrow's meeting with the board of governors. Budgets and Financing were already overly boring without the added distraction of her painkillers fogging her mind. Why Lucy had chosen this weekend to go to her first party in five years was beyond her.

"Miss Ashley, I didn't think I'd see you here." A voice interrupted her after-school hours overworking mind. "I think the library is a couple of blocks away."

"Just following your advice, Dragneel." She earned an easy smirk from the pink-haired astronomer.

She took a second to look at the professors' attire. She'd only seen him in the formal red dress shirt and black tie from his Thursday lecture at Magma. Now he was dressed a lot more casually in a gray t-shirt with what looked like a red dragon printed down the left side and black, loose jeans.

"I forgot how loud these parties were."

"Yeah, the Fairy Tail ones tend to get a little rowdy. I thought you'd be here with Levy, though?"

"Gajeel happened. The little shit stole her as soon as we walked through the door. She promised she'd stay with me. 'Least she could do after trying to drag me to one of these things for years."

"And here I thought you came here for me, Miss Ashley. I'm offended." He drew his hand to his chest in mock hurt.

"Miss Ashley? Seriously? Please, I already said, Lucy is fine."

"Alright, Luce." His smirk grew at the sight of her growing annoyance.

"C'mon, Jet and Droy left the upstairs open for people to use."

At that, she blushed, remembering vividly of what 'going upstairs' at a house party insinuated back in high school. "I- uh."

"Shit, I didn't mean it like that." He laughed nervously, his hand not clasping a red solo cup sought the back of his neck to rub it. "Just follow me. You look like you're ready to collapse from all this noise."

She was glad to finally have a break from the encore as they made their way up the short staircase to the second floor. They'd practically been shouting at each other before he'd suggested escaping. Now he was just trying all the rooms, searching for one that wasn't currently being used for other _activities_.

Opening the last one, Lucy realized, by the set of stairs they were met with, they lead to the roof. She followed him up, assuming he knew the occupants of the house would allow them to be up here. Well, they did leave it unlocked. Although high surfaces and a crowd of drunks were not quite her idea of a good mix.

The roof to this place was mainly flat, being located in an area of renovated warehouses-turned-flats. Jet and Droy, Lucy recalled being the aforementioned tenants of this house, were Levy's friends from way back in kindergarten. The two guys had been dating for a couple of years now and had been renting their current accommodation since a little time after. Having no other tenants to bear in mind, their house was often the go-to place for parties and casual hangouts. Lucy had never before visited, but she'd hung out with the two when she'd run into them with Levy once or twice.

She stopped near the edge of the roof, looking up to admire the relatively clear night sky. Magnolia wasn't the busiest city, but it was still home to its fair amount of light pollution. Despite that, with the few stars she could see, Lucy liked to spend a quiet evening staring out of her bedroom window, basking in their calming presence.

"You're pretty young to have a doctorate and tenure, right?" Lucy spoke, trying to strike up conversation again as she turned her attention back to Natsu. He seemed to have already been looking at her. Was he watching her look at the sky?

"Well, I'm older than I look, but thanks for the compliment." He winked jokingly, laughing as she withdrew in slight embarrassment.

"Wait, how old are you?"

"Twenty eight, why're you asking?"

"No reason. It's just impressive for Mag-U to have taken on such a young professor."

"Nah, not so much when you know the facts. Gramps got me the job."

"Your Grandad works at Mag-U?"

"Makarov, yeah." Seeing her confusion, he continued. He's not my actual Gramps. It's just what we all call him. He was close with my Dad, Igneel. Gramps was the one that encouraged me to go to Mag-U. Wouldn't have gone to college had he not."

"Ah, I see. Makarov's head of the Astronomy department, right? Must be handy having him as your boss."

"Yeah, especially when he has to explain to the Dean why me and Stripper were caught fighting in Mira's on-campus coffee shop."

"Stripper?" She almost laughed at the outlandish nickname. Was this person actually a stripper?

"Gray, I mean. He's downstairs, challenging Cana to a drinking match. Or at least attempting to."

Ah, a drinking match with Cana. Lucy could vaguely recall the brunette from back in Uni. The girl had been the year above Lucy and was well known within the girl's dorms for always being up for a drinking game. She'd been tempted to call campus security when the girl had gotten overly rowdy a couple times and was drunkenly shouting the dorms down. The only thing stopping her, aside from whatever paper she'd be rushing through that night, was the fact that Cana was the dorm R.A, making her the next level of authority and also the only second year living in the girls' dorms. How she'd gotten the position was beyond Lucy's guess.

"So, what about you?" He spoke.

"What about me?"

"You're headmistress and owner of an entire school. That's some shoes for a twenty-seven-year-old."

"You've been doing your research on me?" She smiled, curious as to what he might've found.

"Nah, you mentioned that you were roommates with Levy. She was a year below me at Mag-U."

"Oh, right."

"So how about it? How'd you get your hands on the means to open that place."

She seemed slightly taken aback by the question. Unsure of how to answer without giving away the fact that she was the daughter of a major business magnate. "An estranged relative left me the money. I didn't really know what to do with it, being twenty-three at the time, so I pretty much got rid of it the only way I knew it would do some good. The business side wasn't too difficult, considering I was about to go into my masters for business anyway. Did a two year major in English teaching before that, so I already knew I wanted to go into education."

"So, you teach English on top of being headmistress?"

"Only when I can. I'm usually kept busy with meetings and stuff."

"But you had time to talk to that kid the other day. Sherria, right?"

"She was a special case. Sherria's being transferred to Crocus Uni hopefully very soon. She's the smartest child I've seen in a while. Practically a child genius."

"You mentioned she doesn't have a Mom. Poor kid. I can't imagine what I would've done without Igneel and Gramps."

"Yeah. Her parents died when she was young. Same for a lot of the kids there. All they need is a little support. They already have so much potential on their own."

"You speaking from experience?" He asked. Her hands curling around her cup with a tighter grip didn't go unnoticed to him. He'd barely caught the detail, but the crinkling of the plastic had drawn him to look. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cross a line. If it helps, Igneel was my adoptive father. Can't say I ever wanted any other family than him. He was everything to me."

"Was?"

"Yeah, he passed when I was seventeen. Just before I took the SATs. I was lucky that Gramps was there to get me through and into college."

"I get that." She had to stop herself from retreating to a whisper. "I lost my Mom when I was a kid, and I didn't have anyone there when I was finishing High School."

"Ah, shit. That must've sucked. I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. It's not particularly a sore subject anymore." _Not a complete lie._ "I've had time to process it."

It didn't take long for the conversation to settle into silence again. The details of their shared experience provided a mellow sort of comfort between them as they stared at the surrounding city, occasionally glancing up at the few stars littering the dark evening sky.

"See any constellations up there, Professor?" Lucy joked, nudging the guy in an attempt to strike up conversation again.

Natsu smiled. The girl, while obviously just trying to find some entertainment for the few, seemed genuinely interested. "Yeah, actually. If you look just above that building." He gestured to the small apartment complex at the end of the road. "You can see the bright star beta Aquarii, which is part of the Aquarius constellation. The other stars that make up Aquarius are there but aren't exactly easy to see from this side of Magnolia. You can see them from Brock Hill when the sky is clear enough."

"Yeah, I know. I used to go up there all the time when I first moved to Magnolia. For some reason, I always loved looking up at the stars. Something about them being there no matter where you are in the world just made them familiar, I guess."

"That makes sense. So you knew that one was Aquarius? Why'd you ask then?" He turned more to face her, more interested in her knowledge than his own.

"My Mom taught me. Though she was more interested in the folklore surrounding them."

"Your Mom believed in Astrology?"

"And you don't?" She caught on quickly to the mocking twinkle in his eye.

"What can I say? I've always been a firm believer of the more physical sciences than pseudoscience."

"Jerk." She giggled, making him cough as she dug an elbow into his torso in jest.

He straightened up, genuinely intrigued by this girl's infatuation with what he saw as so clearly a bullshit myth created by the Babylonians. "So, do you believe?"

"Well, yes and no."

"Huh?"

"Yes, in the sense that the Zodiac have their own personalities but no to them reflecting the personalities of those born within their stardates, which are inaccurate, by the way."

"Your Mom sounds like quite the teacher if your belief stuck with you all this time."

Her smile was small but visible, taking a moment to remember the woman that invested so much time into making sure Lucy believed in the seemingly impossible. "Just because we can't see the Zodiacs, doesn't mean they aren't out there somewhere. Just because you never meet a person doesn't make them any less real."

"And I suppose there's some sort of meaning to never bumping into that person at least once?" He was joking, the laugh that followed his question made that much obvious, but something in Lucy just said he wasn't being mean in his picking on her.

"I dunno'. I'd like to think there's some meaning behind everything. Even something as simple as bumping into a person."

"Or inviting them to give a guest lecture to your students?" He smirked.

"Well, no. I'd just like to think that with all the bad in the world, some good must be in there somewhere."

"That's pretty optimistic of you, Miss Ashley."

"Is it?" She laughed. "I never really considered myself a 'glass-half-full' person."

"Why can't it be both?"

"Huh?"

"The glass, I mean. The world isn't black and white anymore, so why should we have to have a positive outlook one-hundred percent of the time."

"This coming from the guy who probably believes good and evil to be some trick of the mind." She laughed, tempted to stick her tongue out in a childish tease.

"Oh, and I suppose all those imaginary friends I had as a kid was the universe telling me to be a fiction writer?"

"I wanted to be a writer. I guess the school side-tracked me from that dream somewhere along the way."

"Well, it's never too late." He tried his best to give a supportive look to her, but it didn't seem to come across, or maybe she didn't believe him. Natsu had always been an 'act first; think later' kind of guy. If he had an ambition, he wasn't one to back away without a little roughhousing. To see someone, especially as young as twenty-four, to have given up on their dream so easily. Sure, some good had come out of it in the form of that school, but perhaps it wasn't the thing in Lucy's life that would make her happy. Natsu had found his supposed 'ultimate happiness' through his Astronomy, and he could never doubt his career for a second. He enjoyed every second of it - not counting the terms where his lectures would continue late into the evening. The professor had always been more of a morning person.

Maybe… Just maybe she could find some solace in the stars as he did. The spark she had in her eyes when she stared at the wide sky - the spark Natsu convinced himself wasn't just a reflection of the bright streetlights below - it gave him hope that Lucy could find the same love for them that she perhaps had in her writing. He didn't exactly know this girl he'd been familiar with for all of a couple of days, and as the realistic person he was usually, that short time was enough to coax him into asking her to join him on a starry night out…

* * *

Kicking her heels off, Lucy dropped her empty coffee cup on the kitchen counter, dumping her heavy bag and coat on the floor below. The moment she stepped through her apartment door back into the comfort of her home at seven every evening was the part of the day she looked forward to most of all.

This longing was usually the result of a meeting or two that had threatened to bore the woman out of her conference chair and into the bar down the street. Today had been a particularly trying day as she'd had to tackle her way through a Governor's dispute over budgeting for the all-year-round borders at the high school.

The stingy bastards on the board were trying to worm their way out of paying for the children's annual end of year celebration to commemorate the moving on of the students that were going into higher education in the next academic term. Still, at least tonight, she had something to take her mind off of where the money for the kids' party would come from. Natsu had invited her to a work event to see the late April Lyrids, visible from Brook Hill, the highest point in Magnolia accessible to the public.

She hadn't done a lot of stargazing since her Mom's passing, but she certainly missed the quiet nights in their estate's gardens, watching the Meteors quietly hiss past above them. Tonight was the peak of the Lyrids, meaning tonight would be the best night for Natsu to study from them, at least that's what he said. She hadn't wondered much as to why he'd invited her, putting it down to him having taken notice of her interest in the stars. Even if the scientific side wasn't one she'd much studied before.

"You okay with pasta for tea?" Levy spoke from the living room sofa. Her roommate wasn't usually around much at this time as she often spent the night at her boyfriend's apartment, so to see her sat there startled Lucy right out of her skin.

"Gods, Levy! Don't scare me like that." She put a hand to her chest to soothe the overreaction her heart was having. "I'm not staying, sorry. I'm heading back out again for a work event. I just need to grab a shower first."

"A work event at this time? Levy checked the small silver watch on her wrist, walking over to see what they had in the fridge for a one-person dinner.

"It's Natsu's work event. He just invited me along."

"Natsu? As in Gajeel's cousin?!" Levy would have spit her water out if she'd been drinking at the time.

"Yeah. We got talking at Jet and Droy's party last night."

"I knew there was a reason you finally agreed to go! And here I thought I was the one that convinced you to finally make some friends."

"I have friends." Lucy insisted, partially hurt by the smaller girl's accusation. "I have you." Okay, so Levy was mainly right.

"So, this is strictly a work event?"

"Uhuh," Lucy half-arsed spoke, preoccupied as she rushed into the bathroom, bypassing the shower for a quick touch up on her plain makeup and a change of clothes, compromising with her having agreed to meet Natsu in half an hour. Brook hill was a fifteen-minute drive away, and she didn't trust herself to leave the shower in time if she got in.

"Are you sure your date knows that?"

"What?" Lucy paused in front of her bedroom door to give Levy a dirty look. "It's not a date. Natsu's a work friend."

"He invited you to this thing at a party. I think that surpasses the boundaries of a 'work event'" Levy held her fingers up in quotation marks.

"It's. A. Work thing." The blonde glared, trying her best to shove her purse and keys from her work bag into her jacket pockets. She'd opted for her neat leather jacket. Coincidentally the one her roommate had deemed 'Lucy's date jacket'. It just so happened that the jacket that was perfect at keeping off the April chill also stopped at a point that perfectly emphasized her butt, along with the jeans she'd shoved on at the last minute. Sure, it wasn't exactly formal, but neither was trudging up a muddy hill in the dead of night.

She shot one last scowl to Levy before rushing out the door. She'd probably be waiting for Natsu with five minutes to spare, but she'd rather be early for a _work event_.

* * *

_Mud, mud, and oh, more mud._

Lucy cursed at every God there possibly was for putting her in the middle of a field during Magnolia's worst season for rainfall. Sure, the weather had been relatively clear for the past week, but that didn't stop the still waterlogged earth from squelching and sinking her shoes further into the ground. She was just thankful that she'd chosen to wear suitable footwear.

Placing her moping thoughts of ruined sneakers aside, Lucy picked up the pace to kill the growing distance between her and her… work date.

"Thought I'd lost you there for a second, Luce." Natsu chuckled, readjusting his grip on the bulky black case in his hands to give her a hand up a particularly steep step up the hill.

"Yeah, well my job doesn't usually take me outdoors, I'm afraid."

"You get used to it with astronomy." He paused as they reached the beginning of a mainly flat clearing, almost causing Lucy to trip over herself at the sudden stop. "Here's good enough."

Lucy watched as the professor clipped open the case, setting it out on the ground and taking out a large apparatus. Every astronomer's best friend- a telescope.

"It's pretty quiet for a meteor shower," Lucy spoke. "I thought we'd see more people watching."

He didn't seem to want to respond, too wrapped up adjusting the settings on the slowly slanting telescope. Slinging his already abused messenger bag on the ground, Natsu scrambled through the pockets, hissing silent swears to himself while trying in vain to hold up the wilting optical tube.

"Everything okay, Natsu? You're panicki-"

"I can't find them!" He interrupted sharply, abandoning his bag to solely focus on manually fiddling with the failing joints.

"Find wha-?"

"The screwdrivers! It's an old telescope. The joints need tightening, or else this thing is useless for getting results."

"Natsu, would you stop interrupting me for a second?!" She huffed, half tempted to march her way down the mountain and abandon the struggling man to his impertinence. "What screwdrivers do you need?"

"Unless you can magic up some precision screwdrivers, there's nothing you can do. I'm afraid we'll have to cancel."

Lucy Ashley could consider herself the biggest weirdo in the world…

Reaching into her jacket pocket, she pulled out a neat little purple purse, slipping a small finger under the clasp to open it. She drew a small metal case- the sort of thing you'd find in a Christmas cracker, and toss to the side in disappointment. She knelt beside the defeated telescope, her actions pausing Natsu from his packing up. She fit the small metal device into a dip in the frame. Not an exact fit, but the screwdriver clipped the drives of the screw just enough to make a difference, squeaking the protesting joints into a tighter state.

"You just carry those around with you?"

"If you tell anyone, you're dead. Got it?"

She sighed, seeing him somehow even more confused. She could have easily passed it off as screwdrivers being a handy thing to have on your person but for some reason, omitting the truth from Natsu felt wrong.

"I'm farsighted," she grumbled. "I need glasses for reading. The screwdrivers are for them."

They settled into a stubborn silence, Lucy refusing to look at Natsu in case he further enquired into her secrecy over the damned tools. She looked up when a chortle broke, interrupting her self-pity. Natsu was holding back a full-on explosion of giggles. "Sorry." He spoke, hoping beyond all hope that he wouldn't crack up again. Gods, this girl was weird sometimes. A good weird, though. "What's so bad about wearing glasses? I'm sure you'd look cute with them."

Cute?! Did he really just say that, or was the high altitude getting to her?! Okay, well, maybe she wasn't at a high enough height to argue altitude sickness, but she sure as hell wasn't going to put the heat in her cheeks down to the comment of a man she'd known less than a week. "Y-yeah, well..." Damn her voice. She couldn't speak again without her voice cracking, she was sure.

"Do you have them on you? I wanna see."

The look on his face, she observed, was a weird friendly grin. It was almost charming... _Almost_. "I don't have them on me. Contacts, you dumbass."

"Well, that's just plain mean, Miss Ashley." That earned him a glare.

"You're not exactly kind yourself, Dragneel." The expression on her face quickly flipped, meeting his eyes before returning the smile. Gods, his smile felt infectious. She was about to speak again but was all of a sudden interrupted by a lighting up of the sky in front of them. The view wasn't amazing, but that didn't make the cascading streaks any less magical in Lucy's eyes. "Woah."

His smile stretched even further, despite her attention being elsewhere. "C'mon, you can get a better look through the 'scope." He took a second to look through the eyepiece, expertly adjusting the focus with the side-dials before titling the telescope towards her.

They took their time admiring the passing flares. Each rock hissed as it fled from their sight. They sat lazily on the grass, not giving mind as to how the mud was slowly staining her semi-expensive skinny jeans and his dark navy pants (along with the exact shirt he'd worn to his guest lecture at MagMa, but Lucy wasn't going to bring that detail to attention.)

"I forgot how amazing it felt to just sit and watch the stars." She sighed, almost daring herself to find a way to relax even more.

"You see there, where the meteors all seem to be coming from?" She nodded, following his straightened arm towards the faint cluster of stars that vaguely resembled an irregular quadrilateral. "That's Lyra, the Harp. We call that the radiant point."

"Huh, I'll have to tell her how pretty she is." She couldn't resist muttering to herself. The comment seemed to go unnoticed by the engrossed astronomist, lucky for her. She wasn't quite ready to tell that truth, not that she ever would be ready.

"You know the thing you said about the Zodiacs all having personalities of their own?" Lucy's face paled. She was glad that he was focused on the sky rather than her, or he may have seen the sickly expression she'd adopted. "I knew I'd heard something similar somewhere before. I did some digging, and I think you may have been right."

"Oh?"

"There's this ancient magic - researchers aren't even sure if it exists anymore - where people could harness the powers of constellations in the sky. They may have even been able to summon the beings the stars are named after."

"Why'd it die out?" She managed to get the full question out without retching.

"The keys the wizards used to summon them were rare. There probably weren't enough to justify learning the magic or continuing with it if someone was born with it."

"So, the keys could still be out there?" She knew exactly where the damn keys were. Or, more specifically, what box stuffed in the bottom of her closet they were hidden.

"Probably. Wherever they are, it's for the best that no one has them. The power of the stars would be too much for one mage to handle alone." _Oh, didn't she know!_ "And that's ignoring the fact that the zodiac spirits were essentially slaves to their handlers. It's inhumane to think what they could have been forced to do."

Lucy almost chuckled to herself, remembering a similar conversation she'd had with her mom when she'd first heard of celestial magic.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. The information can be kind of heavy, I guess. Great going, Dragneel." He mumbled the last part, running a hand through his hair, the action proclaiming his guilt rather than any nervousness he'd been feeling all night.

She hadn't even noticed the few stray tears that had streaked their way down her rosy warm cheeks. "No, no. It's fine," she assured him, wiping away at the little buggers, angry at herself for letting them slip.

"Maybe we should call it a night?" Lucy nodded, standing up to wipe off the dirt with a grimace. "If you give me a minute to pack up, I'll walk you to your car."

She had to hide her sudden blush by coughing into the sleeve of her jacket. She was too much of a teenager sometimes, she scolded herself. She continued to get lost in the falling lights, barely noticing the pinkette that had been calling her name for the last minute. She completely missed the amused look that spread across his features, observing the canvas her big brown eyes created for the stars reflected in them as she gazed.

"Luce." He finally caught her attention, laughing as he continued towards the path they'd taken from the parking lot.

"Luce?" She questioned. The unprompted nickname confused her, only having been bestowed one by Levy. 'Lulu' wasn't ever exactly her favorite, but 'Luce' just seemed to stir something in her. Anger? Warmth? Indigestion? It was a mystery. She decided to let it go, falling into step beside the professor.

"I never asked you what your magic was."

She jumped at the sudden statement, taking a moment to process. "I don't have any."

"You mean you founded a school for runaway teens with magic, and you don't even have any yourself?"

"Mhm." She couldn't look at him. She'd never minded lying about her magic before, so why was now any different? "I never had any interest in learning." That lie stabbed even more than the last. She had to direct the question away from her. "How about you? Any magic behind those muscles?" _Okay, that wasn't what she had in mind._

He laughed, running his free hand through his hair. "Fire dragon slayer."

"Dragonslayer? Isn't that super rare?"

"Well, rare enough for both me, Igneel, my sister, and my cousin's family to have it."

"I guess I never asked Gajeel about his magic. I knew he had a weird obsession with eating metal, but I just figured that was a weird fetish, or I don't know... Pica?"

"Nah, I'm pretty sure it's a fetish thing." He grinned at her as she laughed, enjoying the happy spark that bounced in her eyes.

She paused in front of her car, the shitty little Ford focus lighting up at the click of her car key. "Um, this was a good night. Thank you."

"No problem at all. You're good company." He shifted the weight of the telescope case into his other hand, shaking out the other from the dead weight. "For what it's worth, I don't usually take my dates on work events." He shot her a final smirk before retreating through the dark of the parking lot to find the truck he'd parked on the nearby commercial road, having wanted to avoid parking tolls, even with a heavy case.

 _'Date.'_ She repeated in her mind. He'd called her his date. Levy was so going to kill her when she found out.

* * *

**That's it for this chapter! About 2K longer than the last one, I hope you guys don't mind! Don't forget to Kudos and Comment! Each one is greatly appreciated.**

**Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be on Sunday.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wednesday's update may be delayed one or two days. I have a lot of college deadlines this week, sorry!

_"Even if she be not harmed, her heart may fail her in so much and so many horrors; and hereafter she may suffer-both in waking, from her nerves, and in sleep, from her dreams."_

**_-Bram Stoker, Dracula_ **

_Lights floated around the young blonde, dancing in the dark of the late night. These lights were what the girl liked to call stars. They weren't stars, well at least not the stars she often gazed at on nights like these._

_Nights like these... Nights where her parents allowed her to stay up that little bit later, despite the heavy bags under her eyes- evidence of a day well spent as an over-excited child._

_She sat there patiently, or as patiently as a six-year-old possibly could, a far enough distance away to be deemed safe by the woman stood in front of her, watching from the garden steps as a performance unfurled in front of her. A slender arm drew to the sash that held a small pouch of enchanted golden objects. A key already chosen, the woman three steps ahead at all times as she faced her trusted Capricorn spirit in an exhibition for her inexperienced daughter._

_The young girl recognized that pouch as her mother's prized possession- never to be played with or handled without her supervision. And Lucy wouldn't dare..._

Sweat beat down her cheeks as the dream lingered in the waking girl, her head still heavy with a groggy feeling. It wasn't often that Lucy had that dream. Well, it was more like a memory. It usually arose around periods of uncertainty or stress. She could only guess that it was her brain warning her to get more than the couple hours of tossing and turning that came with freshers week and graduation at MagMa. Still, with the little that Lucy remembered of her mother, she didn't know whether she had fabricated some all too perfect edition, because things that felt too perfect usually were in her book. But then again, Lucy didn't suppose she could think of her mother as anything less. She didn't have the right.

There wasn't a need to think over the events of her dream, she knew the sequence down to the blink. So brushing off the last of the sleep she sat up, opening her eyes to the dark room around her. She'd forgotten to close her curtains after her haste to get to bed last night after another boring meeting with the governors that ran late, but the room was still shielded from the moon enough to make Lucy have to take a second to adjust.

She raised a hand to her temple in a grimace as an all too familiar pulsing began tearing its way across the right of her head. All she wanted to do was grab some ibuprofen, and sleep for the forty hours this migraine would last but the '5:30 AM' red flash of her alarm reminded her what exactly was stopping her. _That stupid school._

Of course, she didn't actually hate her school by any means. Every one of the kids there was a little blessing in Lucy's head. But that didn't mean she couldn't hate her job from time to time. Were you really human if you didn't?

"Lucy, the governers are waiting in Conference hall A," Kinana called from the door. Lucy had barely heard the young secretary open the door, only realizing there was anyone in the room when she'd looked up from her bubble of self-pity and paperwork to take a drink from her Iced tea- the only thing that seemed at all helpful during one of her hellish migraines.

She couldn't stop the world from spinning as she followed the purple-haired girl down the hall towards the waiting board members. Instead of the shifting world around her, she focused on basic facts. That usually got her through the worst workdays when her head felt like it was tearing itself apart. Kinana, she tried recalling facts about the girl.

She'd had a juvy record that she'd been very honest about in her interview for the job of Lucy's secretary.

Kinana had a major crush on one of MagMa's math teachers- Eric Cobra. Not the nicest guy but he was a good teacher and cared about the kids, which is what Lucy liked about him. She made a mental note to get the two talking at the next staff briefing.

Before she knew it, she was facing the thirteen faces that made her more bitter than all the oceans put together. 'Salty' was what Levy had once called her. If anything, Lucy was even more 'salty' at the fact that she wasn't up to date on all the slang every other young adult her age knew. She'd know as much teenage language as the bloody governers by the time she thirty at the rate she was going! She really needed to take Natsu's advice to relax a little. And relax she would, just as soon as she'd gotten this meeting out of the way, secured funding for the end of year prom, signed off the certificates for this year's graduates and... Okay, maybe she'd have to hold off on the relaxation for a while.

She stared around at the present board members, offering a small smile despite the raging pain that the ibuprofen she'd swallowed ten minutes ago did nothing to dull.

"Apologies for my tardiness, gentlemen. I'm afraid I was putting out fires elsewhere." As if she was sorry for spending less time in front of these stingy idiots! "I understand we left off on rather unsteady terms last time, but I'm sure we can all put that meeting behind us and consider a fairer budget for the end of year celebration for the graduates." She tried her best to keep the smile up as she sat herself down at the head of the table. Not one of them had returned the friendly gesture. _Grumpy bastards!_

"Miss Ashley," The head of the governers, Goddo Serena, stood. The blonde man did his best to tower over the woman, which wasn't hard considering she was only 5'2" [5'5" with her current heels]. "We don't appreciate our associates turning up ten minutes late to a meeting and then demanding we give our money to a bunch of no-good brats! Your lack of cooperation gives me every doubt that I should take my charity elsewhere!"

 _Oh for fuck's sake..._ "Lucy sighed to herself before standing up, preparing herself for a repeat of last week's armageddon of a meeting. "Mr Serena, I apologized for being late, I think you can find it in your heart to forgive me." Good. She'd gotten through that one sentence without calling the man who very much controlled the fate of the school with his money, a grinch. "And as for taking your 'charity' elsewhere, I think we can both agree that it would look quite odd for MagMa's largest sponsor to suddenly pull their funding on the grounds that I was ten minutes late to a single meeting. I think you'll find I've been more than cooperative with you gentlemen. I've even gone as far as to cut down on the number of school trips these children could have this year just to bring some more money into _your_ pockets. Surely, you can take a little out of your paychecks which, by the way, is money these kids have never even dreamt of, to give them the celebration they deserve. They work bloody hard to get their GEDs and extended magic qualifications, just to make _your_ asses look good!"

_Holy fuck her head felt like it was on a rollercoaster._

She had to stop herself from gagging from her sudden outburst. She had known from the moment she'd stepped into her office that morning, that a meeting with the board of governors would only get her riled up and make her migraine ten times worse.

Serena's face contorted, a visage of anger had every face turning towards the headmistress to see how she'd react. Contrary to their expectations, the younger blonde made no move to back down, her serious expression not once wavering - though unknown to the board, this look was more to do with the pounding she trying so hard to ignore. Before the volcano of an old man could erupt, Kinana walked in, ignoring the thick tension that had built in the room.

"Lucy, there's a professor from the university here to see you. He said it was urgent."

"Well, boys." She smiled at the all too welcome intrusion. "I'm afraid we'll have to cut this meeting short. I'm assuming you'll all take the break to think about what withdrawing funding from the school will do for your public image. I'm sure the tabloids will be more than happy to post anything I _accidentally_ let slip."

She turned away from the gawking men, excusing herself with a confident gait. She quickly thanked Kinana before slipping into her office, closing the door behind her to ensure nobody heard her de-stressing.

"Natsu, this better be a bloody good emergency, because I may have just bombed the future of the school." She already knew the man was waiting. She didn't exactly know many Mag-U professors well enough for them to be coming to her with a crisis.

"What emergency?" he sat leisurely on her desk, ignoring the important papers he was crumpling with his ass. The glare she returned quickly reminded him why he was there. "Oh, right. Gajeel said you weren't well. Thought I'd come here to rescue you."

"Don't you have some stoned teenagers to be lecturing?" She grumbled as she collapsed in her chair, attempting to shove him off. "Get your fat-ass off my desk, Natsu."

"Hey, I'm just tryna' help, Luce."

She ignored his protests as she shoved him further, waiting for him to retreat towards the window before she slammed her head on the desk, groaning at the additional pain.

"Why on Earthland did you come in today if you're clearly too sick to do any work."

"I'm not sick. I've just got a bit of a headache."

He looked unconvinced, continuing to stare at the blonde woman as if she'd just said the most insanely stupid thing she could think of. "You're gonna have to work a little harder than that, Luce."

As if she had the bloody effort to!

"C'mon, Luni. I'm taking you home." He grabbed the coat she'd lazily chucked on the floor that morning, only half an inch away from the actual coat rack.

"Luni? Y'know what, nevermind." Her head screamed at her to shut up and close the damn curtains. "I can't go home yet, I've hardly even started the work I've got to finish today."

He laughed at her voice being muffled by the desk as she didn't even bother to look at him as she talked. "C'mon, Luce. I bet you've never taken a sick day in your life."

She didn't respond, her head still glued to the glossy wood.

"I thought you were taking my advice." He walked over to the desk, no longer scared of the bristling headmistress. "Relax, Miss Ashley."

Squinting eyes glared up from where they'd buried themselves in her arms. "Close the curtains and bugger off." She would have retaliated with his nickname if she'd been able to get another word out with her rising nausea skyrocketing.

"That's it."

For a moment the office seemed silent apart from the quiet shuffling of feet that Lucy anticipated as Natsu giving up and leaving. She let out a squeak as arms wrapped around her, slightly grazing the underside of her breasts. Whether intentional or not, she couldn't protest as bile rose in her throat. She practically choked it down as he dragged her out of her chair.

As soon as she was stood, she pushed herself away from the dragon slayer and leaning on her desk to wait out the headrush.

"Never. Fucking. Do that. Again." she managed through gritted teeth.

"Lucy, I'd be convinced you had the flu if I didn't know otherwise. How can you expect to help these kids if you can't bloody help yourself." He was done with her shit, and she knew it. "Now, am I taking you home or are you gonna puke all over the paperwork you're so insistent on slaving over?"

"Whatever."

She'd barely gotten into the pickup truck before the exhaustion hit tenfold. She pulled at the seatbelt but the damn strap wouldn't cooperate. The passenger door opened again, letting in a very welcome breeze that combatted the heat Lucy had been feeling more and more since leaving her office. A gentle hand placed itself over hers, stopping her insistent tugging. She let her head fall back against the seat, barely managing to mumble out her address before giving in to the overwhelming fatigue...

"Luce. Hey, wake up. We're here."

She hadn't even noticed the engine being turned on, let alone the twenty-minute journey in the rickety old pickup. She struggled out of the cabin, stepping onto the tarmac below as Natsu rushed to steady her, bringing an arm around her waist. The vehicle clicked shut, the lights flashing for a second as the two walked up the stairs up to Lucy and Levy's shared apartment.

Lucy reached for her house keys, grabbing them out of her handbag with an unsteady hand. The pain in her head did nothing to help her concentration as she struggled to slip the key into the lock. She quickly found the key being taken from her, a tanned hand doing the job for her before helping her through the opened door. The apartment looked pretty well looked after to the professor, only being home to a couple of visible bumps and scrapes on the walls. The kitchen and living area were open to each other, only meeting three doors. Two bedrooms and a bathroom, he assumed.

"Will Levy be home soon?" Natsu questioned, heading towards the kitchen counter. He watched as the blonde walked over to the sofa, slightly shaky in her steps but otherwise looking okay. The paleness of her skin had slightly lessened now that he'd gotten her out of that office. He hadn't found the time to ask her how she was actually feeling in between getting her out of the school and making sure she didn't trip over herself in those heels. She nodded her head in response to his question, pressing her eyes closed as she sat. He didn't know much about migraines, or how to help anyone going through one. He'd only heard of the hell people went through when one hit, and by the looks of it, this one was hitting Lucy hard.

He'd only known the woman a week, and he could hardly say that he knew her all that well. He knew that she'd lost her mother, and had lost some other relative that left her the money to start MagMa. He'd no clue where her father was, or whether Lucy even felt comfortable confiding in him about the man, but he wasn't going to pry. He didn't even know if she considered him a friend yet, maybe a work buddy? Well, either way, she trusted him enough not to kidnap her in his truck whilst she was incapacitated from a migraine. Despite the constraint of time that he'd known her for, Natsu couldn't deny that he'd taken a liking to her. Lucy felt more honest than girls he'd connected with previously. Granted, he didn't meet this one over promises of a shot of cheap tequila and a hotel suite. Not that he had a major history of girls, or girls that he met in bars for that matter.

He hadn't noticed he'd been watching her until the attention-seeking beep of the kettle broke him out of his thoughts. He turned away from her, taking comfort in the fact that she'd made it safely to the sofa. He opened two cupboard doors before he found the mugs, selecting a random two and clonking them down on the counter.

"Tea or coffee, Luce?" he turned to face her, only to find her having already made herself comfy, heels thrown on the floor with none of her usual grace. Blonde tresses were coming loose from the professional bun he'd seen her hair in more often than not. She didn't seem to care that her work friend (Not the same as a real friend, Natsu would be cautious by clarifying) currently had a front-row ticket to the 'Lucy wrinkles what looks to be a moderately expensive pantsuit' show. Or maybe she didn't care because she was asleep.

He walked through the open plan living space, doing his best to keep quiet as he tried in vain to get a better view of the blonde's face. Instead of being met with closed eyes and the all too adorable expression that Natsu assumed the woman slept with, he found her glaring towards the ground, almost squinting.

"Lucy?" He whispered, not wanting to make her migraine any worse.

She responded in mumbles, too quiet for Natsu to catch.

"Hey, hey." He knelt on the floor in front of the couch, interrupting her line of sight. He placed a hand on her warm forehead, pushing back the loose strands. "You wanna repeat that so I can hear?"

She let out a small sigh, pressing her eyes closed and turning her head to snuggle into the couch cushion. "I snapped at the Head of the Board."

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad, Luce. C'mon, take your mind off of work. You need to rest."

"Okay." She murmured into the soft cotton, giving up surprisingly easy. She resumed her quiet thinking. "Why do you keep calling me 'Luce'?"

Natsu chuckled as he stroked his hand further through her hair in a gentle rhythm. "'Cus you're a bit loose in the brain."

She huffed into the cushion. "Well, you're not exactly sane either."

"Tea or Coffee? Answer before I start quoting Alice in Wonderland."

She sat up slowing, staring at the astronomist in disbelief. "You've read Lewis Carroll?"

"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves..."

"Okay, okay!" She giggled, pushing him away from the sofa in jest. "Tea's fine, thanks. There's some cinnamon chai in the cupboard next to the mugs. That should help with the jackhammers taking residence in my head." She held a hand to her head in emphasis.

"What else helps?" He asked as he went back to the kitchen, reaching into the same cupboard and finding the little plastic pouch full of tea leaves.

"Eating something, I guess. It's fine though, I can take care of myself. You can go."

"Nah, it's fine."

" _Go_ Natsu. I've taken up enough of your time as it is."

She'd push him out the door if she were able to stand. Instead, Natsu stood in the kitchen, grinning at her in taunt. "I wanna stay. C'mon, humour me, Miss Ashley."

"Only if you stop it with those stupid nicknames." She eased herself off of the couch slowly, making her way over to the dragon slayer. She leant on the kitchen counter, watching him pour hot water through the tea strainers. He turned to stare at her, keeping a hand stirring the mugs alternatively. He stuck out his tongue, sharing a smile with the blonde. Yeah, they were definitely friends.

"I make and break no promises, Ma'am."

She placed her head into her arms, bending more to keep them resting on the counter.

"Are you feeling any better?"

She nodded her head, not removing it from its support. She felt a warm hand place on her upper back, stroking small circles into the navy cotton. She hummed in favour, enjoying the tension lifting from the gentle touch.

"C'mon, tea's ready. Wanna go sit on your bed and I'll come in with tea in a minute?"

"Sure." She didn't have the energy to protest at the fact that she hadn't invited him into her bedroom. She removed herself from the counter, slumping off towards her bedroom.

Lucy sat on the double bed, wiping her face clean of makeup. Now that she'd had a proper look in the mirror, she could see exactly what Natsu was talking about. She looked awful. She'd made a half-assed job of covering up her sleep-deprived bags that morning and it showed. She probably looked like a crazy woman!

She grabbed her PJs from underneath the pillows, making sure to warn Natsu that she'd be indecent. She'd waited for his response before slipping into the camisole and velvet shorts. She made a note to put some alternate pyjamas a reasonable distance of her bed as she was all too aware that her current set was from the nearby lingerie store, even though the set was in no way inappropriate. Well, her bra straps showed but she didn't think that was cause for scandal.

She answered to Natsu's fist gently tapping the other side of the door, opening it to let him through. Letting out a strained laugh, she watched as Natsu balanced a tray of tea, toast, a tub of butter, and jam. He practically crashlanded his way onto the bed, somehow managing not to get crumbs or drink on the peach-coloured duvet cover. "I didn't know what you wanted on the toast so I just brought butter and jam." He took a moment to catch his breath, sitting by her pillows.

"Thanks, but I like my toast dry." Lucy took a slice of toast from the pile of three, enjoying the crunch as one of the only sounds that didn't feel too loud at the moment. Her migraine certainly wasn't as demanding as it felt back in her office. She didn't know whether it was the escape from the governors or the presence of her favourite astronomist that helped, but both distractions were welcome. She turned to face him again, amused to find a confused expression etched into his tanned features. "What?" She mumbled through her hand, covering the mouthful of toast she was chewing.

"You weirdo!" he burst out with all the eagerness of an impatient toddler.

"Oh, shut it Dragneel!"

"Oi. You said enough with the nicknames."

"Yeah, you gonna make me?"

Their sudden verbal butting of heads left them both surprised. Anyone glancing through her bedroom window during would've seen the grins on their faces, and would take the spat as flirtatious at least.

"Erm, I should probably get some sleep."

"Yeah." He was quick to agree, trying to avoid her seeing the redness in his cheeks by grabbing his mug of tea and retreating out of the room. He nipped to the toilet after placing his tea in the fridge to cool. He'd managed to tame the firey feeling in his cheeks, enabling him the courage to walk back into Lucy's bedroom. He hadn't meant to get so overworked over a little teasing, but her comment had just come so unexpectedly that he'd had no time to coach himself through it. At least he'd gotten through it with minimal embarrassment. And he didn't think his friendship with the young headmistress was too irreparably damaged.

He slipped through the open door, not wanting to disturb her as he grabbed the tray and dirty plate. He took a second to check on the sleeping girl, brushing back the hair from her eyes. He didn't want to stare too long, not feeling fond of creeping her out, but before he could get to the door, a hand stopped him moving any further.

"Natsu, would you mind staying for a bit?" Lucy spoke, her voice groggy with exhaustion. "Just until Levy comes back."

"Yeah, 'course." He didn't know whether she was wanting him just in the apartment or in her bedroom so he just opted for sitting on her bed as she curled back into herself.

After a few minutes, he found that Lucy had migrated towards leaning her head on his lap. Her eyes were still hesitantly opening every couple of minutes but she was slowly drifting to sleep. In that time, Natsu managed to lean himself against her abandoned pillows without rousing her. He couldn't reach for his phone so he took to running his hands through her loose hair to occupy himself.

Contrary to his hyperactive personality, he managed to remain in his place for a good couple of hours. It probably helped that he'd fallen asleep sometime after he'd settled onto the bed. He was woken when the apartment door clicked, creaking open to welcome someone.

"Lucy, sorry I couldn't pick you up earlier, I was swamped at work." Natsu recognized the voice as Levy. He'd almost forgotten that she lived with Lucy. "We've got this new author, _completely_ oblivious to grammar- Oh!" The bluenette squealed as she entered her roommate's bedroom, not expecting the strung up blonde, of all people, to be cuddling up to a guy. "Oh, Natsu. It's just you!" She let out a sigh of relief.

"You sound surprised." He chuckled quietly. "Your boyfriend was the one that called me, remember?"

"Yeah, of course." She returned the laugh. "I just wasn't expecting Lucy to get you into bed so quickly. This is a big step for her."

"Big step?"

"You can't deny it. You totally have the hots for Lucy!"

"I- um." He blushed at his friend's accusations. "I've barely known her a week, Levy."

"And? I'd only known Gajeel a couple of weeks before I asked him out."

"Yeah, in the most awkward setting in the world. You only stuttered, what like a hundred times when asking him?"

"Shut it before I wake her up and tell her myself."

"Oh, Levy." he adopted a teasing smirk. "I didn't know you liked her in that way."

"I won't deny she's hot, but I don't swing that way." She laughed again before switching to a more serious stare. "If you don't ask her out though, someone else is gonna sweep her away before you know it."

"I'll take that into advisement. Thanks, Levy."

She hummed in acknowledgment, leaning herself on the doorframe and folding her arms. "How is she?"

"Feeling better, definitely. She could hold a conversation by the time she settled down for a nap. But there's no way she could've made it through a workday."

"Don't I know it. Her job sounds mental sometimes."

"Yeah? What's the craziest thing you've heard her do for that place?"

Levy accepted the challenge, raising an eyebrow in question. "What? Aside from opening the damn school?"

"When I met her, she was climbing down the building in a pantsuit and heels, chasing after a startled student!"

"That's nothing. Lucy once spent the entire night 'hunting ghosts' in the girls' dormitories just to calm down some scared first years and then slept it off in the twenty minutes she had before her meetings ." The bluenette made sure to gesture the absurdity of their shared friend hunting non-existent creatures.

"Holy shit, she must love those kids." He didn't bother to reign in his admiration, staring at the blonde in awe.

"Ironically she doesn't want her own. She hates all that stuff. 'Says it would tie her down too much."

"And the school doesn't?"

Levy shrugged, readjusting her stance. "She has her reasons."

"And I suppose I'm going to have to ask her myself?" He'd known Levy for years and knew of her tricks when it came to matchmaking. Anything to get the supposed couple to bond. Her measures were scary sometimes.

"I'm not saying you don't have your own baggage that's equally important, but just take care of her, okay? But don't coddle her. That would be the best way to push her away."

"Noted. Thanks, Lev."

"No problem." She smiled, watching him stroke a hand up and down Lucy's bare arms. "As much as I'm bitter that I wasn't her reason for going to that party at Jet and Droy's house last week, I'll admit you're a good influence on her. Keep it up or I'll come round to Mag-U to hack your dick off with a pair of scissors."

Yup. He'd been expecting that crazy threat from Levy sooner or later. It was her go-to threat when it came to her friends dating. He smiled sheepishly, trying not to grimace from the thought.

"I'm making enchiladas for me, Lucy, and Gajeel later if you wanna stay for those. They're spicy, just the way you like them."

He perked up at this, grinning at the script mage midget stood in front of him. "Sounds good."


	4. Chapter 4

_ "A trap is only a trap if you don't know about it. If you know about it, it's a challenge." _

**-China Miéville, King Rat**

It took Lucy a couple of seconds to establish where she was. She was warm, that was for sure, and that warmth made her not want to open her eyes even an inch. Whatever she was cuddled up to was the perfect temperature. It was simply bliss.

She hummed in content, tilting her head to nuzzle into the source. But, she found herself confused. Instead of pressing her nose into the soft plushness of her pillow, she was met with a stiff substitute. Maybe she'd fallen asleep on the sofa again, and Levy had been kind enough to throw a blanket on her? Brushing off her uncertainty, she snuggled further, stroking her cheek against the soft material, until she heard a chuckle.

She forced her eyes open, giving them a minute to focus. Her eyes traveled up the expanse of a grey t-shirt, locking eyes with her pink-haired friend. She screamed, pushing away, subsequently forcing him off of the bed and standing up herself. The sudden action begged the return of a sharp pulsing in her head, alerting her to its dull but persistent presence.

"Argh," she groaned, placing a hand to her temple.

"I'd ask if you're feeling better, but I'd say the answer's pretty evident." a voice spoke from the floor. Natsu bobbed his head above the bed, sitting up.

"Why were you on my bed?!"

Her migraine protested at her shrieking, spinning her world enough to force her into sitting back down. Natsu skirted round the bed in urgency. He sat beside her, stroking a hand up and down her back as the dizzy episode passed. "You asked me to stay." He said.

"Oh." She managed to mutter. "Sorry."

"It was my pleasure, Miss Ashley." She glared at him as he chuckled. A blush spread across his cheeks, half in amusement and half in the realization that he'd just said that. "Besides, your bed is way comfy than my own. I managed to catch a few winks."

"Believe it or not, Dragneel, I don't often drag guys I just met into bed with me."

It was her turn to laugh as his face reddened even further. She winced as the pounding scolded her once again. She never liked waking up during a migraine, but other basic needs often overruled the unpleasant feeling. Appropriately, her stomach growled, interrupting their interaction. "C'mon, Levy said she was making enchiladas for lunch."

He stood and held a hand out to help her up. Making sure she was steady on her feet, he walked out of the bedroom, practically dragging the poor girl by her still captive hand.

"Good morning, you two," Levy teased from the breakfast bar.

Lucy blanked at this, looking to the pink-haired professor in confusion. "How long did we sleep?!"

"Chill, Luce." He removed his hand from hers, ruffling it through her bed-knotted hair. "She's kidding."

"Oh. I knew that." She excused herself to the bathroom, needing to wash away her fatigue at the sink. When she returned, Levy was pulling a tray of warm enchiladas out of the oven. Gajeel, who the headmistress hadn't noticed before, had situated himself behind the fridge door, grabbing a carton of juice before swinging the door shut.

"Mornin', bunny girl." He grumbled in his rough voice. His unruly black locks had been tied back into a loose pony, something with made Lucy laugh in surprise each time. It made the guy look a lot more docile than the piercings and body art suggested.

"Oh, haha." Lucy spat back, sarcastically. She moved around the couple to open a kitchen cabinet. She grabbed a bottle of white wine, placing it on the counter before grabbing four wine glasses from the same cupboard. It took little work with a corkscrew to open the cheap twenty-dollar bottle. She poured the glasses until half full, grabbing her own and one for Natsu. He took it, thanking her as she took the barstool next to him. It only took a minute for their friends to join them, sitting across from them at the four stool breakfast bar.

They struck up conversation throughout lunch, all four being new to hanging out as a small group but nevertheless comfortable. Lucy was used to Gajeel hanging around the apartment, but she didn't often join him and her roommate for meals as she didn't want to play third wheel. But with Natsu here, with his giddy attitude and comfortableness around them all, Lucy felt as if this domestic occasion couldn't get any better. She certainly had no regrets about taking the professor's advice at this moment. Maybe opening up to people wasn't so bad after all? It wasn't as if you had to tell them every little detail about yourself. She could only wonder if this was what it was like at the bar the three Fairy Tail members hung out at with the other members of their old Mag-U society.

It had taken them half an hour of bites between talking to finish their plates. Lucy had ended up sacrificing her last quarter to Natsu, having had little of an appetite despite her stomach's earlier insistence. After abandoning their plates at the table, the four had continued their discussion on the sofa.

"And the professor had no idea!" Lucy could hardly finish the story. She and Levy were in tears as they remembered the shenanigans they'd gotten up to in their intro to English lit class at college. Gajeel and Natsu sat there, the story not making sense between the snorts and giggles of the two girls.

As Levy continued to writhe with laughter, Lucy began to sober up from the tittering high. Her cheeks flushed as she realized how little a filter she had from only one small glass of the wine. She didn't usually let herself so openly laugh, especially not at her own story. She walked a fine line between letting herself submit to the tipsy buzz with another glass and just giving up and going back to bed. But the drinking and conversing had distracted her enough from her migraine, giving it chance to fade unnoticed. She was glad of its unusually short existence, knowing it wouldn't help with the hangover she'd have by midnight.  _ Gods,  _ she was a lightweight!

Gajeel took off to the bathroom, taking the empty wine glasses with him to dump in the kitchen sink on the way. He returned five minutes later with a vibrating phone in his hand. "Bunny girl, your phone's ringing."

"Oh shit, thanks. It's probably work." She grimaced. The only person who knew of her quick escape this morning was her secretary, Kinana, who she and Natsu had run into on their way out. Lucy doubted she'd revere the paperwork she'd left herself to do. She'd have to catch up in her own time, and that was on top of the unpaid overtime she already did. Still, it was worth it.

"Don't swear at whoever's on the other end, just in case." Natsu laughed, warning her. Her 'drunk filter' apparently didn't include a PG 12 exception. She glared at him before clicking the green answer icon to Kinana's contact picture.

"Miss Ashley! Oh, thank the Gods!" The young secretary didn't even give her a chance to say hello. "I've been trying to reach you for ages! We've got a situation at the school."

"Woah, Woah. Slow down!" She was trying her hardest to keep her words from slurring. "What's the emergency? And on that note, why are you calling me Miss Ashley."

"The board called an emergency meeting after you left. They're claiming you were working under the influence. You  _ were  _ really out of it this morning. I tried to explain about your migraines, but they wouldn't listen."

"What the-"

"Lucy." Natsu cut in, reminding her.

"I'll be there in half an hour, just stall until then for me, please."

She rushed off of the sofa, running into her room to throw a fresh pantsuit. She could only manage the bare necessities of makeup within the time constraint.

"Lucy, what's going on?" Levy let herself into the bedroom, not caring that her roommate was in the middle of buttoning up her shirt. Lucy rushed passed her, rattling off some excuse to her haste. "Hey, hey!" She grabbed the blonde's arm, stopping her in her path. "Calm down. Everything's going to be fine, I'm sure. Whatever this emergency is, you'll get through it. You just need to calm your shit."

Lucy managed a nod, focusing on calming her breathing before proceeding her frantic dash. "Those bastard board members are claiming that I was drunk at our meeting today. I gotta go sort it out." She reached under her bed to find some suitable heels, hopping into the living room as she put them on. She stopped to put her hair into a pony-tail, not bothering with anything special. Natsu took the break to interrupt.

"Luce, what's happening."

"MagMa emergency." She mumbled through the bobble between her teeth.

"Oh shit. Is everything okay?"

She grabbed the hair tie from her mouth, wrapping it around the pony. "I gotta go, Natsu. Levy can explain."

"Come to the bar then later. I've got some errands to run for Makarov, so I'll be there around four."

"Okay, I'll see you later."

"You got this!" Natsu called as she closed the apartment door. He took a second to breathe, jumping as he realized his cousin was stood behind him, having gotten up from the sofa.

"You really got it hard for bunny girl, eh?" Gajeel taunted in his rough voice.

Before Natsu could object, the blonde came barrelling back through the front door. "Levy, I'm borrowing your car!" Lucy called as she grabbed the keys from their pot on the kitchen counter.

Natsu let out a small "Oh." As he realized that in his insistence that morning, getting her out of her office, he'd left her car back at the school. He hadn't spared it a single thought at the time.

"I told her she shouldn't have gone in this morning." Levy quipped as she left her roommate's bedroom, having just cleaned up the hurricane path Lucy had left.

Lucy's hands shook as she twisted the key, turning off the engine. The next couple of hours would determine the fate of the school, not just herself. She gripped the steering wheel, staring at herself in the side mirror in some attempt to hype herself up. She could do this. She just had to convince those stupid idiots on the board that the only thing influencing her behavior that morning was her migraine.

When she'd started MagMa, her one thought had been to help the kids that were like herself. Of course, she'd been careful with the selection of the governers, but she also wasn't nieve. Men like the governers had one thing in mind, and it wasn't the children. It was business. She'd grown up around men like them. She'd also been raised to know how to appeal to them, and how to manipulate the coins out of their pockets. But those techniques came without respect, and certainly without dignity. She wasn't going to lie, cheat, or seduce her way into appealing to those perverts.

She wore pantsuits as a way to object to their prejudice. There wasn't a single short skirt in her closet. She'd gotten rid of the mini-skirts and crop tops phase as soon as she'd become headmistress. She had to gain respect, but apparently, her four straight years of effort gave nothing to show in that regard.

She forced herself out of the car, making her way up the large stone staircase to the front doors of the school. Lessons were still in session, so there were students still roaming the halls. She did her best to smile at them, not finding the usual joy of watching the kids learn. After all, in a couple of hours, those kids could be homeless. It would be all her fault.

She reached the board room in record time, despite her wanting to take in every last second she had in this place. She took a breath before entering, meeting the stern faces of the board. Each governor looked as if they were staring her down, judging her every step. The slightest unsteadiness in her gait might confirm their suspicions. There was no way in hell that she was going to blow this with her nerves.

"Miss Ashley, once again, it's nice of you to finally join us. It seems tardiness is becoming a habit of yours." Serena spoke, a vicious smirk playing on his lips.

"And  _ once again,  _ I apologize, but I believe we have more important matters to discuss." She stood at the head of the table, emulating her stance from their earlier meeting. "If you'd like to inform me of your exact allegations, I'd be happy to set the record straight."

"Please, Miss Ashley. I think the allegations are quite clear."

"No, they really aren't." She had to hold herself back from snapping at the senior. "You had no reason to hold an emergency meeting without me."

"I'm sure you'll agree, Miss Ashley, that it would hardly be in the students' best interest for us to have discussed the matter with you first hand."

_ Oh, as if they cared about the students _ . "If you'd listened to my secretary, you would have known that I had a migraine this morning, but  _ thank you so much  _ for caring about my health."

"I don't appreciate sarcasm, Miss Heartfilia."

"Well, I don't appreciate... Wait, what did you call me?"

Her blood ran cold at the twisted smile that crawled its way onto Sereno's face. "You didn't think we'd recognize the daughter of one of the biggest business magnates in Fiore? Why you're the spitting image of your mother."

She raised her voice, weary of people in the adjoining rooms hearing. "You've known all this time? How could it possibly benefit you to keep that from me?!"

"Besides the opportunity to leech off of a little girl who has no business playing dress up in her daddy's shoes? Face it, Heartfilia, you're nothing without your family name."

"Take that back."

"Oh-ho-ho! Little Miss Heartfilia has Jude's temper! Now isn't that cute."

"What do you want?" She glared at the sleazy governor, "Money? Power? Land?"

"We know you still hold shares in Heartfilia Railways. Hand them over, and we'll let this little  _ misunderstanding  _ slide." God Serena leaned back in his chair, raising his hands to his chest in steepled fingers. He let out a cruel laugh as he watched the girl stare in disbelief at the table of satisfied faces.

"I can't afford to run this school without those assets! You should know that already!"

"You have three days to decide, Heartfilia. Either we expose you as the long lost spoilt Heartfilia heiress, or your school and your oh-so-precious students will sink before you know it."

She took a second to herself, leaning on the table and staring down at the dark wood. She wanted nothing more than the floor to swallow her up and spit her out somewhere far away. If she could somehow disappear, again then... No, she was making too big a deal out of her silly little surname. "You're bluffing." She dared to look the senior board member in the eye.

"Am I?"

"My father may have been a cold man, but he did nothing to tarnish the family name. He wouldn't have dared. It was too precious to him."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, deary."

She didn't believe the man for a second. Her father loved his business more than... well, more than he loved his own daughter! She'd admitted that  _ long _ before she'd run away from that life.

"Ever wondered how your father made so much revenue from his simple railway business?"

"Railway businesses make billions every year. It's not surprising he saw a large profit from that, even after he'd sold shares. What's your point?"

" _ My point is:"  _ Serena hissed through his teeth, sitting up in the big leather chair. "Your father had a finger in the biggest illicit trafficking ring in Fiore. If word were to get out about your family's firearms trafficking. Well, I don't think people would appreciate their heiress running a school for underprivileged runts."

"They're not runts." She spat out, partly in disgust and partly because she didn't know what else to say. "Where's the proof?" She managed after a couple of seconds stewing.

"I thought you'd never ask." He waved at the man sitting closest to Lucy to hand her a beige document folder from his briefcase.

She opened the file, her hands screaming at her not to as they shook. She placed her eyes on an accumulation of pictures, each taken of her father back when he was alive. Each photo showed him partaking in what looked to be illegal trades. Him in the token brown suit, the one she'd seen him wear in most of her memories of him. The sinister photos came complete with a record of all Jude Heartfilia's transactions in the arms-trading business. The papers had a big red stamp mark on them that read 'SOLE COPY. DO NOT DESTROY.'

Her chest tightened, and tears burned in her eyes, threatening to fall. She blinked them back in protest, not wanting the governors to see that their manipulation had worked. She'd walked right into their trap. They had her father and her family name dead to rights. This would tear down the school in an instant. There was nothing clear that she could do.

"Three days, you said?" her voice wavered, and she cringed inwardly. She was never one to back down, especially not to misogynistic prejudicial bastards like these men. "You'll have my decision by then."

"Looking forward to it, Miss Heartfilia."

She grinned snarkily, resisting the urge to curse them out of her school. She made her exit from the conference room, almost running into her secretary on the way out.

"How'd it-?"

"Don't worry about it." Lucy interrupted the anxious girl. "Call me if there are any more emergencies."


	5. Chapter 5

_ "Maybe that's what love is. Having someone who guides you through different experiences, coaxes you to try new things but still makes you feel safe." _

**_― Wally Lamb, We Are Water_ **

"Lucy will be fine, Natsu. Stop pacing." Levy tried her best to reassure the dragon slayer for the billionth time. He'd been stressing since they'd watched the blonde headmistress runoff after lunch, and the floor was beginning to beg for mercy under the dragon slayer's heavy steps.

Natsu hadn't been around for one of these 'emergencies' before, Levy had realized. If it wasn't for the errands he'd promised master Makarov would be finished that afternoon, he surely would have followed his blonde friend all the way into whatever meetings the poor girl was trapped in. He tended to come off a little aggressive when it came down to 'protecting' his friends, and that surely wasn't what Lucy needed in the immediate situation.

She'd seen her roommate handle crisis after crisis in that school, and Levy was beginning to damn the place for it. She admired her friend immensely for her hard work, knowing the young woman had achieved more in her young adult life than most people did in a lifetime, but she rarely got to see her, and she was her best friend! If something happened to that school, lest it be an accident to one of the students or the control of the place falling into the wrong hands, she knew that Lucy would be heartbroken. That thing was her baby... Ironically.

Well, the metaphor did fit. The aspiring book editor chuckled to herself, taking a sip from her mid-afternoon orange juice. Each time MagMa cried out for attention, Lucy would answer accordingly. She put up with every tantrum from those board members, soothed every hiccup in the school's administration, and she made sure each and every child that walked through the doors got the help they needed. If Levy didn't know her roommate's parallel and all too grouchy side that often stirred during a five A.M. wake up, she would have revered her.

Lucy's balance of perfections and imperfections were what made Levy sure that her friend would fit great in Fairy Tail. This bar, their home, was their safe haven from anyone who had ever treated them poorly in life. Every member was like family and was to be treated as such. Fairy Tail didn't care where you'd come from, or what sort of past you'd had. All it cared about was providing shelter from the storm. And so it did. Levy couldn't name a single member that hadn't been through some tough shit in their life.

The blunette herself had come from a not-so-kind foster home, prior to Fairy Tail. She'd barely made her way through her first semester of college before she'd run into her old friends, Jet and Droy. She'd known the two in Kindergarten but hadn't seen them since up until then. The boys had heard of her parents' car accident, the reason for her transfer out of their school district and into foster care, and had immediately offered her to hang out with their society. Little had the bookworm known that their invitation would be the thing to lead her on to her moderately successful career in editing soon-to-be publications. Makarov, the man who ran Fairy Tail and the savior of her college loans, had managed to hook her up with a job in a small bookstore in the quieter part of town. That job had enabled her to connect with a small-scale publisher in town, landing her in the job she had now.

As soon as she'd met Fairy Tail, including her future boyfriend, Gajeel (though she hadn't known that at the time, of course), she'd realized how much her roommate would belong. Despite having known the blonde only since their fresher's week at Mag-U, and despite Lucy's aversion to wanting to open up too much at the start, Levy had had a good feeling that they'd get along great. Now, since knowing her roommate for well over seven years, they'd both found great comfort in opening up to each other. Sometimes it was as if they'd made it a mission to make up for every girl talk and sleepover they were deprived of in their teenage years. They'd sit up all night in their cozy little apartment, huddled on the sofa with a bottle of white wine and a gateway to giggles. They'd been able to open up to each other, Levy about her parents' passing, and Lucy about her being estranged from her family. Neither knew the sordid details, but they understood that there was territory that neither desired to explore. It simply wasn't worth the pain of digging up old graves.

Levy had been itching to drag Lucy to meet her Fairy Tail family. Today felt like it was finally the day. She'd known when she'd first heard Natsu's name uttered from her roommate's lips that something unprecedented was about to occur. Lucy making friends?! Never!... Okay, maybe it wasn't Supreme Court levels of new precedents, but it certainly wasn't what Levy had been expecting when Lucy had come home from work on a regular Tuesday afternoon. Now all Levy had to hope was that this new emergency didn't take away from introducing her best friend to her family.

The pinkette dragon slayer was very lucky that Erza hadn't shown herself in the guildhall yet. Master Seargent Erza Scarlet was the guild's resident stoic. The woman was a certified bad-ass. Your natural Ellen Ripley; your Sarah Connor; your Beatrix Kiddo! Everyone in the guild knew her deal. She'd dropped out of college soon after meeting Fairy Tail to join the Army. Twenty-seven and already Delta Force. That made her the first woman in Fiore to take the position of special forces. Her missions with the elites were unpredictable, and that meant she could be called out at any second. Being special forces also meant the missions could be anywhere from a mere week in length to her disappearing for several years, no contact whatsoever. The guild had recently hit a lucky streak, however, having gained the company of their beloved Requip mage for over two months now, and they couldn't have been more thrilled.

But Erza's military side didn't come with an off switch. And that side didn't take to Natsu's antics around the guild kindly. His paces were beginning to burn the wood planks, making every step known.  _ Left, right, left, right, turn. Left, right, left, right, turn. _

"Natsu, would ya quit it already?! We get it, you're whipped for that girl." Levy cringed as she knew what that comment meant. Gray had arrived and, like always, was ready to pick a fight with his nemesis.

"The fuck did you say, Ice princess?" Natsu stopped, turning towards the entrance. They were steps away from butting heads.

"You heard me. You've been fawning over this girl for over a week. Who's the unlucky fluzey?"

"That 'fluzey' is Levy's roommate." Gajeel stepped in between, his rough voice putting an end the rising anger. "You'd be wise to apologize when she gets here."

"Cool it, Gajeel." Levy laughed. "Lucy isn't going to mind. I'm sure she has her mind on other things right now?"

"Have you heard anything more from her?" Natsu questioned.

"Not in the five minutes since you last asked."

Gray cut in, initiating a childish nudging match with the antsy pinkette. "Why's Flame breath all riled up?"

"You know that school for runaway kids up on those old castle grounds?" She waited for Gray to nod before continuing. "She runs the place. She's there now, dealing with a crisis."

"Natsu managed to land that?"

"You little shi-"

"Both of you shut it." Gajeel interrupted Natsu, sick of the repetitive squabbling. "Bunnygirl's great. A little quiet, and bitchy at her worst times, but you'll like her, Gray."

Levy scowled at her boyfriend. " _ Anyway, _ I've texted her the address of the bar, she'll hopefully be done soon, and with some good news."

It was another hour before a car pulled up outside the bar. The sound of the driver's door opening and slamming shut made both dragonslayers wince, both knowing who's car sounded painfully broken when shut (the result of years of anger taken out on the car would be an accurate assumption). Natsu was  _ so  _ dragging Lucy to an auto mechanic. No car should sound like  _ that! _

He made a note to ask her about that later, turning on his barstool to order another half-pint. He'd been marking papers since finishing his jobs around the guild and hadn't wanted to overdo it on the alcohol whilst doing so.  _ No matter how much drinking he claimed to need just to get through any paper done by a Mag-U first year.  _ He was thankful that Lucy had chosen now to get to the guild as he was just about to start marking essays on Newtonian Dynamics, and he was not looking forward to it!

He heard the guild doors creak open behind him as he packed away papers into his scruffy messenger bag. By the time he'd turned around, Levy had already wrapped herself around the blonde, obscuring her face from Natsu's vision. The second that Levy pulled away, he could see the look Lucy held was not a good one. Her wide eyes were puffy with unshed tears, and her mouth was stuck in a firm line, almost as if she were in shock. Abandoning his bag, he ran towards the pair, pulling Lucy into a hug of his own.

"How'd it go?" He asked, not wanting to pull away quite yet. He waited for her to respond, but only received a short shake of a head against his shoulder. "Luce?"

"I could be fired."

"What?" Levy spoke before he could.

"I- Um." Lucy was at a loss for what to say. She couldn't exactly tell them the truth, they'd surely hate her. After all, she hadn't been exactly honest with her friends. Guilty by omission, surely. Instead, she swallowed, taking a moment to think through the numb cloud in her mind. "It's- uh. It's up to the governors."

"And without you-"

"There's no school." Levy interrupted Natsu again. "Those kids become homeless if those bastards on the board so wish. Oh, Lucy. I'm so sorry."

"I'll figure something out, don't worry about it." She managed a smile. One that grew when her roommate returned it, seemingly convinced by her positive comment. "Now c'mon, we need drinks."

"So you're the famous Lucy?" someone spoke behind her, catching her attention. She turned to face them, confused when she saw Natsu scowl, having already seen the speaker.

"I'm afraid I'm at a disadvantage." her defenses went up at the stranger's presence.

"Wow, Natsu. This one's formal."

She scowled, taken aback by the man's choice to speak to Natsu rather than herself. "I didn't realize Natsu was my spokesperson."

With a tilt of his head and a shake of his raven hair, the man let out an easy chuckle. "Sorry. It's just that Natsu's been fawning over his mysterious lady for weeks."

"I wasn't fawning!" The dragonslayer blurted, pouting as Lucy laughed at his outburst. She didn't seem embarrassed by his 'fawning', though.

"Name's Gray Fulbuster. It's nice to finally meet your acquaintance." He held a hand out, expecting her to shake it.

"Now who's being formal?" she smirked.

"Touché."

They got into light conversation, Gray joining Lucy and a sulking Natsu at the bar. She learned that Gray worked over at Mag-U with Natsu, but Lucy felt like she already knew that. It was only when he started unbuttoning his shirt, did she put two and two together.

_ Stripper. _

Natsu had mentioned this man before, way back when they'd first met. Way back being only a few weeks ago. She squeaked as he continued undressing, turning to Natsu as if to ask what to do. In return, she received a nonchalant shrug.  _ Oh, he was so getting it later!  _ She glared at him as she cleared her throat. "Uh, Gray. You're um."

It took him another second to realize what she was getting at. "Oh, shit!"

She giggled, automatically going to cover her mouth- An old habit she'd kept up from her higher class upbringing. Her joy was cut short, however, when she felt a hand creep up her back, fingers pressing into her suit-covered shoulder blade, and nails suddenly digging in.

"Love rival~" a voice hissed behind her, the owner of the nails no doubt.

Lucy winced as the nails dug in further. Without shrieking, she tried to shrug the person off, confused as to why neither accompanying guy appeared phased by the creep. She finally pushed the hand off with her own, glaring at the woman behind her. "Excuse me?"

"Back. off."

The assaultive attitude of the woman wasn't the thing that stuck out to Lucy, despite her face being uncomfortably close to her own. Nor was it the weird blue theme she had going on. Blue hair, blue eyes, blue clothes, blue handbag. She looked dressed for a snowy tundra. No, what caught the celestial mage's attention was what was poking out of the handbag.

Hanging limp on the open zip was a little doll, one that was clearly shirtless, and had a kaomoji joy face embroidered onto the fabric skin. The dark hair on the doll almost made her think it looked like Gray.

"Juvia lay off." The female bartender giggled, wiping down the counter in front of Lucy.

Juvia, eh? So that's who the forming nail indents in her shoulder belonged to.

"Bu-" Juvia stuttered, clearly appalled at the bartender's instruction.

"No buts. We don't need you scaring off another one of our patrons. Besides, Lucy's nice."

"You know me?" Lucy inquired, confused as to where she'd met the woman before. White hair? Big blue eyes? A  _ very _ well-endowed chest? She seemed like the sort of person she would have remembered.

"You went to Mag-U. Ordered hot cocoa with cinnamon from my café every Monday before classes."

"How do you remember that?! That was years ago!"

"Mira has a talent for remembering anyone's order. It's how she singlehandedly runs the bar. We don't ask how she does it." Natsu informed her, leaning forward onto the bar to engage more with the conversation. "Oh, and you can ignore Juvia."

The blunette growled animalistically.

"No offense." he quickly added, directed towards the crazy woman. "She hates any woman that so much as glances in the direction of her 'beloved Gray'." He pitched his voice for the last two words, imitating her in an overly shrieky tone.

"Quit it, Moron." the ice wizard glowered.

"Make me, Ice boy."

Juvia began to creep on Natsu. "Love rival~"

"I'm not gay!" Gray all but shouted, reigning in his anger. The last thing he needed was an upset and clingy Juvia.

"Well, it's the only explanation." Lucy snickered, catching both boys off guard. "Juvia's a hot piece of ass; If you won't snatch her up, Gray, I will."

All eyes in the conversation looked to Lucy, startled.

"Juvia thanks Lucy for the compliment," Juvia spoke, cheerful enough to smile at the blonde. "Although, she's afraid she only has eyes for her dear Gray."

"Y-you like girls?" Natsu sputtered.

Lucy just shrugged, taking a sip of her drink. "Gotta have some mystery to me."

"I might have to set you up with Cana then. I've tried setting that woman up on dates twice, and she blew both of them off!" Mira sighed at the thought of having to apologize to another girl, confused as to why their promised date stood them up.

"Woah. I didn't say I wanted a matchmaker. But thanks, Mira."

"Besides," Levy cut in, having overheard the last part of the conversation. "Lucy already has the hots for a certain atrono-Mmpht!"

The bookworm squealed as her roommate placed a hand over her mouth, smothering her words.

"Oh, so there's a lucky man?" Mira smirked, able to fill in the blanks of what Levy had been about to say.

"No, I- What?!" Lucy didn't know what to say. "Natsu, help!

The sulking dragonslayer turned to her, confused. "Huh?"

"Great help. Thanks." She grumbled sarcastically.

"You're weird."

"Says you!"

Juvia spoke, watching their scrambling. "Oh! Juvia sees it now."

"Juvia sees what?!" Lucy spat, surprising herself with her aggressiveness. "I mean... Ugh!" She placed her head in her hands in defeat.

"Weirrrrd~" Natsu curled his tongue, maintaining his teasing tone. "Come on, Luni. It's getting late, I can give you a ride home."

He grabbed his bag from underneath his stool, holding a hand out for the headmistress to take. He waited through ten seconds of glaring before she finally took it, mumbling something about wishing he actually was gay so she wouldn't have to deal with the jokes.

They made it out of the guildhall after a few short goodbyes and a promise from Levy that she'd stop by the apartment before work the next morning, as she was planning on spending the night at Gajeels.

Lucy got into Natsu's truck, this time without requiring a hand up from the observing dragonslayer. She'd left Levy's car keys for her at the bar, already having been planning to hitch a ride. She watched as Natsu swiftly slammed his door with caution, zipping and clicking his belt into place, and turning the key in the ignition. The engine roared into life, but before he could shift the gear stick, a hand was placed atop his own. He looked up at his passenger with a questioning glance.

"I don't wanna be alone tonight," she whispered, barely able to meet his eyes.

He smiled understandingly, turning his hand to hold her dainty one, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Come to mine, then. I've got cheap wine."

She let out a small laugh at that, nodding.

"I've gotta warn you, though: I haven't tidied in like a week."

"And here I thought I was the slob." she cringed at the thought of her bedroom's wastebasket that desperately begged to be emptied. The poor thing held home to month-old pizza and tampon wrappers that she'd been too lazy to travel to the bathroom to dispose of.

She removed her hand from his, sharing a laugh when she left his palm with a final poke. With a gentle rev of the engine, they were off.

As Natsu pulled into the driveway, Lucy took a second before unbuckling to admire the house. It was a simple two-story colonial, but that wasn't the part she was admiring. Lucy's awe was captured by the roses that clung to the porch pillars in neat spirals. The domestic green of the front lawn made compliments to the many arrangements of brilliant whites and intense violet hues. Lucy couldn't name any of the flowers, except a small patch of pink bleeding hearts. The same ones grew in the estate gardens when she was growing up, but those ones were much taller than six-year-old Lucy Heartfilia.

"Did you grow those?" Lucy asked, not bothering to tear her eyes away from the picturesque scene.

"Uh, Yeah." Natsu put a nervous hand to the back of his head, fidgeting with the pink strands. "Igneel always loved that garden. When he died, it was one of the last connections I could feel with him." Natsu slipped out of the truck, Lucy following suit, walking around the flowers to where they could see the small orange patch hidden by the bigger flowers. "He planted tiger lilies, roses, daisies, and violets because they reminded him of-"

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Lucy finished, smiling happily at the flowers. She bent down to get a better look. This garden had so much care put into it. The placement of each type of flower carefully thought out. She could almost see a happy little child Natsu running around the lawn, getting under his foster father's feet as the older man worked with such care. "So you did read it."

"Igneel read it to me. The Gods know I'll never admit to reading more than an astronomy textbook."

He smirked as she glared playfully at him, giving her a hand up. "This was his house?"

"Yup." He walked up the few steps to the front door, pulling the keys out of his jean pocket before slipping one into the lock.

She followed him in, feeling slightly awkward. She always did in other people's houses, but now she felt as if she'd somehow upset Natsu by bringing up his Dad. It wasn't until he'd emerged from the kitchen, having realized she'd stopped following in the foyer, with a bottle of red and two glasses, that she noticed his friendly smile.

"You okay there, Luce?"

She nodded, thanking him when he took her suit jacket from her. She'd managed to leave the apartment without a coat, that afternoon, in her haste to get back to the school. He led her left, passed the stairs, and through the first of two sets of double doors. This was the lounge room. The other doors of the hallway- Lucy could only guess that it was a laundry room or study of some sort.

They sat on the sofa, Natsu on the side closest the door, and Lucy in the middle of the two cushions. The room was spacious, with windows facing out to a perfect view of the garden, only minorly obscured by the porch rail. To the right of the sofa was a fireplace. Rather modern for a colonial home, but Lucy assumed that it was a later addition to the place. Also in the room was a fair-sized flatscreen tv with a few astronomy magazines spread on the coffee table.

"You kinda shocked me with the lesbian joke, by the way," Natsu spoke, his nerves evident in the red coloring his cheeks.

"What?"

"I just meant... Um, I need a corkscrew for this wine, I just- I'll just go grab one."

He tried to get off the sofa, almost tripping in his hurry. Luckily for him - or rather unluckily for his 'seamless' escape - Lucy's hand caught his before he could faceplant. "I've got a corkscrew on my keys, it's fine."

He sighed in defeat, sitting back down. "Of course you do..."

"What were you going to say?" She asked, grabbing her keys and the bottle of wine. She quickly impaled the oak, twisting it out with a pop. She poured both glasses to halfway, managing not to spill a drop.

"Just that... I dunno."

"Maybe a sip of this will help."

He took the glass, very thankful for the cold liquid that would soon be rushing through his veins, giving him some courage. Damn, he really needed to man up... In a totally non-misogynistic way. He completely respected woman, and- Okay, he really needed to get his head straight.

"Why do you have a corkscrew on your keys?" he managed to momentarily distract away from his previous conversation attempt with his weird question.

"Who doesn't?" she shrugged, taking a sip. "I'm prepared."

"And I'm impressed, Miss Ashley."

"Impressed? That's high regard coming from you, Professor."

"Okay, okay." He laughed, finding himself already comfortable with having the blonde in his home. "Truce?"

The giggle he got in return made his smile broaden to where his fangs poked out, completely on display. "Truce."

They shook hands, sticking their tounges out at each other in jest before settling back into the sofa cushions.

"I do like girls, by the way. But no, I'm not a lesbian, I'm bisexual. And no, I'm not into threesomes." She smirked at his confused expression. "I get asked that by pretty much anyone I tell. Which isn't a lot of people, so you should feel honored." She winked to emphasize the joke.

"Darn. And here I was hoping you, me, and another girl could get it on tonight."

"Oh, you're interested?"

They struggled to keep up the facade, sniggering in between sentences. "I wouldn't say no to a little foreplay."

Their faces inched closer, both with teasing smiles on their faces. Lucy took the closing distance as an opportunity to straddle the dragonslayer, letting him take the wineglass from her hand to place it on the arm of the settee. Their act was cut short when Lucy frowned, staring at the precarious placement of the very stainable liquid. "You're gonna leave that there?"

"Yeah? Does it matter?"

"Only if you don't want your nice white carpet ruined." She got off of him, standing up and placing the glass a safe distance away.

"Well, now I can't reach it," he complained.

"Suck it up, bitch."

He matched her frown, only due to his pensive state. "You're confusing. You know that, right?"

"I like the word mysterious. Adds a bit of flare." She held up jazz hands as she sat back down, wanting to shake off any seriousness.

"No, really. One minute you're putting out fires at MagMa, holding your job on the line, the next you're joking with all of us about booze and hookups."

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"I have concerns, yes. A problem, no."

"I'm comfortable around you, that's all."

"That's all?" Natsu asked half-hoping she'd say something along the lines of his recent dreams. He couldn't lie to himself, he did like her. It felt like playground politics to think of it that way, but it didn't feel right to think anything more without confirmation from Lucy herself. It was everything from the way she tried her best to laugh, even when conversing with strangers, to her small quirks. The way she wrinkled her nose when something irked her. The way she covered her mouth when a conversation required a more open laugh. She confused him.  _ That _ he could say without her approval.

"No." She paused, thinking through what she wanted to say. "But I'm not going to openly tell a guy I like him after knowing him for less than a month."

"I was under the impression that a month was a long time for you to be friends with someone, Miss Ashley." he tried to return to their previous lightheartedness, only now realizing the permanent effect of his words. Frikin liquid courage, his ass!

"You want me to say it?"

"Honestly?" Lucy nodded, letting him continue. "I do."

She smiled, her shyness once again showing itself as she looked anywhere but him. "I like you."

"I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you." He teased.

"Shut the fuck up, Dragneel."

"Gladly."

He pulled her gently into a kiss, his lips pressing into hers, moving delicately against each other's.

"Lucy," he gasped as they pulled apart, smiles wide and excited.

"I know."

She moved back in for another kiss, not hesitating to straddle him again, this time without the joke. He could feel her breath against his mouth as she hovered, not quite meeting his lips or his crotch. He tilted his head up, initiating another soft kiss before another, more hungry one. He could feel how chapped her bottom lip was, but he wasn't exactly surprised. After all, her day hadn't exactly been stress-free, and she had a habit of worrying the skin there.

As their kisses grew more frequent and greedy, they found themselves craving more. His hands held her hips, finally colliding her ass with his legs. The sudden action had her surprised but didn't tear her away from where their tongues were now meeting. Her body felt warm in his hands. She moved her arms from where they'd been abusing his shirt to his neck, stroking and twisting the hair she could feel. She pulled away, taking a much needed second to catch her breath.

"Wait, wait." Natsu protested as she leaned in again.

"What is it?" She asked nervously. He placed his forehead to hers in reassurance, smiling at her eagerness.

"Do you really wanna continue?"

Lucy kissed him before responding. "Would I be here if I didn't?"

He laughed, his fingers tracing the outside of her thighs before he pulled her closer to his crotch, enabling her to feel the growing arousal beneath his pants. "We could take this to the bedroom."

She nodded, almost complaining at the voluntary lack of touching as she stood. Her hand found his, allowing him to lead her out of the living room and up the stairs.


	6. Chapter 6

_ "We are most alive when we're in love." _

**_—John Updike_ **

It was weird. Twenty-seven years she had been on this Earthland. Twenty-seven years of working far into ungodly hours each night and the concept of falling asleep in stupid places still wasn't something she was used to. The reasonable person [well, if the reasonable person were to work 12 hours a day, six days a week] would think that after falling asleep in her office, falling asleep on hers and Levy's couch, and crashing in the dorms at Magma countless times, that Lucy would be used to waking up in places she wasn't sure of. She couldn't exactly blame herself, right? It wasn't her fault that her brain didn't seem to work until she'd had at least one and a half cups of coffee in her system. Fuck the reasonable person.

If the bedside table she'd been glaring at for the past thirty seconds was anything to go by, fuck the reasonable person (if one could be considered reasonable for sleeping with Lucy Ashley) was exactly what she'd done. She was in a bedroom. Who's bedroom, she wasn't quite sure she could answer that. She could, however, tell you that the arms around her were very warm. As in falling asleep with the electric blanket on full-blast kinda warm. As in... Well, you get the point. She wasn't going to be winning the Sherlock Holmes award anytime soon, that was for sure.

She didn't really need to guess what she was doing there- the empty condom wrapper on the floor made it plain, and the aching of her joints wasn't too unlike the brief stint of morning runs she'd tried with Levy a couple of years ago. Her body never did like strenuous activity, and the running hadn't lasted longer than a week. But this... If she could only remember who'd she'd spent her first time in eight years with, she just might find something she could enjoy that was 'good for her health'.

A man's voice groaned behind her, lips moving against her bare shoulder, making her freeze. "Mornin' Luce." He spoke.

It took her a second to find her voice, almost chuckling to herself as she realized who would be stupid enough to call her Luce. "Good Morning, Natsu." She tried to turn in his arms so she could face him but met resistance as his arms around her tummy held her in place, allowing him to burrow further into her shoulders with his nose. "Um, Natsu?"

"Yeahuh?" he mumbled lazily, sighing into her porcelain skin. She squirmed a little as his heated breath hit her, reminding her of how dizzyingly flushed she was.

"Could you let me go?" She asked cautiously, not wanting him to get the wrong idea. "I'm a little warm."

"Oh, sorry." He released his grip, allowing Lucy to slip from his arms and sit up. She pulled her side of the duvet with her as she examined the room for her belongings. "They're on this side if you're looking for your clothes."

"Yeah, thanks." She got up, letting the blanket fall away from her body. She walked around the bed, aware of the eyes glued to her with every step. She almost groaned at the sight of her rumpled up pantsuit and shirt thrown with clearly very little care in the corner of the room.

She grabbed the blazer, hoping to find some appearance of her underwear somewhere in the pile, but a scream erupted from her throat before she even knew she'd made a noise. Wrapped up in her  _ very _ expensive pantsuit was a now-waking feline. A laugh behind her drew her attention from the ball of fur devaluing her suit with every hair it shed. She glared at the dragon slayer, watching him sit up and smile at the cat.

"Mornin' Happy."

The cat purred in what seemed like a response, but the purr was broken up in a way that made it sound as if the cat was laughing. She redirected her glare at the pet, resisting the urge to shout. Maybe the heat of sleeping next to a fire dragon slayer was getting to her, but she could've sworn that the cat was blue. Everything other than the two beady black eyes that opened slightly with every sleepy yawn and the red of his ears and open snoring mouth.

"He'll move in a little bit, I promise." Natsu chuckled again, walking behind Lucy and grabbing the boxers that lay beside the chest of drawers. "In the meantime, I've got a few shirts that are clean if you wanna use one of them."

"I um. Sure."

He grabbed the first shirt he saw out of the washing basket at the end of the bed- the one that he'd kicked multiple times during their  _ activities  _ last night. He'd been ready to kick the entire contents of the basket out and burn the entire thing, but a basket of clean clothes in a house with two cats was a luxury, one he wasn't going to kick all over just to get a little more comfortable when going down on a girl. He was silently thanking himself now. As much as he appreciated watching the headmistress strut around his room with bare minimum coverage, he could see the girl was uncomfortable, and another hour in bed waiting for his cat to move was a no go with the current stains on the sheets from when they'd been too lazy to clean up afterward.

"Thanks." She mumbled tiredly, her eyes burnt from sleeping with contact lenses in, and she barely wanted to think what she must look like after sleeping in her foundation and mascara (something which was happening more and more lately.)

"So last night-"

"Don't." She spoke up, interrupting him. "Not right now. I need some coffee and a shower... If it's alright for me to use your shower."

"Yeah, of course." He opened the bedroom door and pointed. "Spare towels are in the airing cupboard on the landing."

She grumbled a thanks, slumping out of the bedroom, more than ready for a shower no warmer than eighty-five degrees.

By the time Lucy had managed to get a good wash and salvage her underwear from the pile of blue fur, her brain had woken up at least a little. She trudged her way downstairs, dragging her bare feet down each carpeted step. Covered barely by a long t-shirt of Natsu's and her slightly clawed panties, she entered the room on her left, following the scent of bacon and eggs.

Natsu stood at the stove, clad in dark pajama bottoms, and a grey t-shirt, poking at a pan of frying tomatoes. He smiled when he saw the headmistress enter the room, watching as she slumped her left side against the fridge next to her.

"That smells amazing." She spoke up first, crossing her arms and leaning her head against the cold metal.

"Glad to see you're in a better mood."

"Yeah, sorry. I'm not very good at waking up. It won't happen again."

He looked back to her, having taken his attention back to the browning tomatoes for a second. "The sex or the waking up next to you?"

It was her turn to smile. Walking over to him, she wrapped her arms around his middle, resting her chin on his shoulder. "The grouchiness. The sex is  _ definitely  _ happening again." Seeing his smirk return, she looked to the food, inhaling deeply and feeling her stomach rumble in fancy. "I'm not kidding. That smells fucking amazing. Is it nearly ready?"

"Just about."

He turned the stovetop off, sad to feel the girl's arms slip away from his waist. He tipped the frying pan's remaining oil down the sink, careful not to spill the tomatoes with it. He grabbed two of the finished skillets, carrying them over to the breakfast bar where Lucy was already sat ready with two plates she'd gotten from his cupboards. He quickly divided up the portions, leaving some in the pans for Happy and eventually Charla, whenever the pissy Persian cat decided to show up.

"Don't look so impressed." He grinned at the girl who was clearly holding back a moan. "I can cook this and maybe a decent Spag-Bol."

"To me that makes you goddamn Gordon Ramsey."

He chuckled at her dramatics. "I take it you don't get a homecooked meal all that much?"

She shook her head, taking another forkful of bacon before bringing it to her mouth. "I don't really cook unless Levy's home at the same time as me. Besides, Levy kind of banned me from cooking without her there to supervise."

"Are you that much of a hazard in the kitchen?"

She took a break from her eating to throw a glare in the direction of his growing amusement.

"Remind me not to leave you unattended in here." He mumbled more as a joke to himself than a way to piss her off.

"I'm sorry I'm not much fun in the mornings. I'm trying to get better at it, I swear. It's sort of why Gajeel and Levy avoid the apartment in the mornings. Well, that and-"

"I don't think I wanna hear what my cousin is doing right now, thanks."

"Sorry." She stared at her food, suddenly having lost her appetite. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "I-"

"You don't need to apologize." He interrupted, raising a hand to the back of his neck, pulling at his hair. "I was joking. I'm sure Levy talks your ear off about that sort of thing."

She finished off her coffee, mumbling a small thanks when he stood, taking it from her, and filled both their mugs. When he sat back down, placing the mug back in front of her before taking a sip of his own, she took a second to examine him. She hadn't really appreciated him yet that morning- Not that she had a habit of staring at him. Really, she didn't. She just didn't have much else to do besides glare at the blue feline that had found its way to her leftover sausages.

Natsu's hair was scruffy but didn't beg for a comb to be run through it. It just seemed to fall into place, making an effortless charming bed-head look. She trailed her eyes down his face, admiring his tanned skin, sharp cheekbones, and strong jawline. He relaxed under her gaze, startling her when she met eyes that were staring right back at her.

"Enjoying the view?" He chuckled, passing the ceramic mug between his hands in an unconscious action.

She didn't answer, not sure she could do much besides sink into the blaring heat in her cheeks.

He decided to change the topic, wanting to get Lucy out of her weird morning malfunction. "What time do you need to be at work?"

She checked the clock on the counter that read 8:26 AM. She looked a little confused at that. Well, not confused- Just pensive. Natsu hadn't quite figured out her varied range of facial expressions yet.

"Considering my workday normally starts around six-thirty A.M," It was her turn to laugh at the stunned look on the dragon slayer's face. "I'd say I can hold off work for another couple of hours. Kinana probably already thinks I'm dead." She jested.

"So, we have time to go again?"

"'Go again'? What do you me- Oh!" She almost squealed as Natsu pulled her from her seat, walking around the table to drag her closer to him. He snuck a kiss to the side of her mouth, trailing a finger along her left-hip, feeling the panties underneath the t-shirt.

He pressed another kiss to her lips, feeling them move against his this time, the woman no longer frozen in surprise. She melted against him as his hands moved further down her legs, squeezing at the exposed flesh of her thighs, making a small moan slip from her lips.

"I'm not sure I have  _ that  _ much time, Natsu." She mumbled in between kisses.

"Then, I'll be quick."

Natsu moved to press her against the table-side, kissing his way down her jaw and neck, trailing to where her skin met cotton just above her breasts. He grasped the shirt, pulling it up far enough to kiss her stomach. She giggled when his lips pressed to her skin in a raspberry, making her squirm and push his shoulders in protest.

"Natsu, Stop!" She gasped as he breathed out another laugh.

"If you insist." His hands left her body with one last squeeze of her ass. He gave a coy glance at her chest before reaching behind her to grab the empty plates.

Lucy was almost surprised when she let out a sad whimper, already missing his touch. It felt nice to have that sort of touch again. It was something she didn't really know she missed- or rather didn't have the time to miss. She had to start taking more days off from MagMa.

"You gonna be pouting at me the entire time it takes for me to wash up?" He asked, giving her a teasing smile.

"What? Why're you washing up?" She sounded more upset than confused, which wasn't at all her intention. She let out a small sigh, walking over to where Natsu was running plates under the tap and nudged him out of the way. She took the plate and sponge he was holding, allowing him to step into place behind her as she placed the washed dishes on the rack.

"You're my guest." He objected, letting his hands rest on her hips, his head sitting on her crown.

"And you cooked. So it's my job to do the dishes."

"I'm guessing this is all Levy lets you do." He chortled against her head, pressing his lips further into her hair.

She almost stopped what she was doing to turn around and glare at him. "Just let me be good at something." She mumbled.

"Hey." He paused her working hands, letting his arms stroke along hers. He moved so he was close enough to her ear for her to feel him talking against it. "I'm sure you're good at loads of stuff."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"Oh." He let her hands go, allowing her to continue with the pans.

"I just mean..." She wasn't sure what she meant. Sure, she knew how to manage a school, but anyone who could fill out a driver's license could run a school. Okay, maybe it wasn't that simple, but it certainly didn't feel like a skill special enough for Lucy to call it her own. Her childhood was full of learning skills to a point where she had a basic enough understanding of them to say she did them but never to the point of calling them talent. She felt almost useless whenever she realized that her business groomed childhood left her with remotely no personality outside of the workplace.

"I get ya'." He spoke softly, pulling them into a light sway as she worked. " _ Gods,  _ I really do." He pressed a kiss above her ear. "But you're so smart, Lucy."

"Says the guy with a doctorate." She giggled lightly.

"I'm serious."

"Well, I don't think I am." She spoke, continuing with her amusement. "For a guy that spent pretty much a decade of his life getting a Ph.D., you talk like one of my students."

He smiled at the insult, getting his fingers prepped by her hips, stopping the swaying movement. "Is there a problem with that?"

"Only if you want me to take you seriously"

She grinned up at him only to be stopped suddenly as his hands moved against her skin, slipping underneath the shirt to tickle her bare skin.

"Natsu!" She shrieked, dropping the pans in the sink with a loud clank. "Not again!"

He ceased the assault with a swift bite to the helix of her ear. Her legs almost buckled at the sensation she was so familiar with after last night. His tongue traced down her lobe, sucking on the skin at the bottom.

" _ Fuck,  _ Natsu."

He chuckled around her lobe, proceeding to draw his nose down her neck and nuzzle into the crook. She leaned her head against his chest, allowing him better access to her pale skin. His teeth dragged across, nibbling just above her pulse point, making her squirm.

"Natsu, I'm ticklish. Stop." She giggled into his shoulder, cringing at the feeling crawling through her.

"Okay." He mumbled half-heartedly, paying more attention to turning her around and hauling her up onto the edge of the sink. She balanced herself, all too aware of the basin full of lukewarm water.

Taking ahold of the t-shirt drowning Lucy's figure, he pulled it off her, keeping a hand on her bare spine to stop her falling backward. Now exposed and conscious of the kitchen window only covered by a thin sheer curtain, Lucy tried to cover her breasts currently hardening from any outside passers-by. The room was initially one she'd admired. The kitchen, having a late 19th century feel to it, was beautiful to Lucy, but now she was beginning to think otherwise as there was an obvious lack of heating. Not even a radiator!

She soon forgot about the cold, however, quickly finding herself enjoying the new warm breath against her areolas. His teeth grazed the underside of her right breast, already aware of his partner's preference towards her chest. And rightfully so, Natsu had thought privately to himself. He could convince himself he wasn't a pervert in public, but with Lucy - and especially seeing her dressed in little more than his shirt - he couldn't help but admire her C-cups... Not that he thought a girl's bra size determined her attractiveness.

He let his hand draw the outside of her left breast, his mouth slowly teasing her right. His right hand held onto her thigh, gently squeezing the flesh there. "L-lucy." He growled, feeling himself partially harden, holding himself back from pressing into her and getting her wet in an  _ entirely _ different way via the sink.

She couldn't help but moan into his shoulder. Her hand sought the one on her left breast, pushing it harder to knead her skin. When it didn't hit how she wanted it to, Lucy brushed it away, causing Natsu to stop all physical attention on her body and watch as her hands played with herself. She met his eyes and almost stopped realizing what she was doing.

"No, wait." He paused her hand, placing it back to where her chest had been thoroughly enjoying it moments ago. "Do that again." His voice lowered to a more gravelly pitch.

She hesitated before continuing, watching Natsu as he stared, finding her truly mesmerizing. He swallowed the lump in his throat, holding a hand to her hip as her breathing got heavier, turning gradually into pants. His fingers trailed the rim of her panties, sneaking further into the cluster of blonde hairs beneath and pulling gently at them. She gasped, holding tightly onto the edge of the sink.  _ "Natsu." _

"I didn't know you liked  _ that _ ." Natsu teased, smirking at the girl.

She looked up at him in confusion, moaning as he tugged again. "Liked what?"

"You're a bit of a masochist."

"Wha-"

"Little miss perfect gets turned on by pain." He chuckled, pulling her to stand from the sink as he shuffled her underwear down her thighs, letting them drop to the floor.

Lucy scowled. "Do you really need me to mention that kink of yours that I discovered that night?"

"Oh, C'mon!" He protested, pressing her against the cool porcelain. "You enjoyed that as much as I did!"

"Oh yeah, because being tied to your bedpost while you get a hardon is  _ so  _ romantic."

"Please, Luce." He pressed a kiss to her navel, sinking onto his knees. "You." He kissed her pubic hair. "Loved it." He kissed just above her clit. " She shivered under his breath. "If it's romance you want then maybe we should stop and-"

"Don't you dare." She asserted, pushing his head towards her pussy. His lips clasped her clit, dragging his teeth and making her shake. Her hands wound in his hair, tugging roughly as he played. Her legs quivered, her knees turning to jelly and almost giving out.  _ Gods,  _ he had a way with his tongue!

Lucy grabbed onto the counter as Natsu's tongue slipped further into her. He growled at the noises slipping out of her mouth. Her juices slipped into his mouth as he lapped them up, groaning in delight at the taste. Lucy tasted like she smelt- Like the sent of sweet strawberries.

"Ah, Natsu! I don't think I can hold myself up!"

He grabbed Lucy's legs, lifting her onto his shoulders, giving him the perfect angle to poke his tongue further into her. She rocked into his face, panting and mewling at the sensation. This felt just as good as last night when he'd pinned her to the bed and eaten her out with just as much eagerness. Natsu's hands squeezed her thighs as she whimpered, her rocking picking up pace, Natsu taking the hint and darting his tongue in and out faster.

Her back slammed into the countertop as he lost balance, causing Natsu's teeth to graze her netherlips. He winced at the unintentional move but chucked when he heard her moan above him. "Natsu, I think I'm gonna- Oh!"

Lucy quivered against him as she felt her walls unwillingly contract. He drank up the flood of fluids that came with her high, gently setting her on the counter and pulling away. He wiped at the excess around his lips, grinning up at the girl with her eyes closed, enjoying the waves of euphoria washing over her.

Natsu watched her slowly gathering her senses. He didn't stop his hand when he found it traveling south, passed the waistband of his underwear. He felt his cock, rigid and standing to attention at the sight before him. He hadn't had a girl like Lucy in a while, if ever. It had been ten years of college chicks and nameless girls from the bar a block away from his office at Mag-U. The few that did gain names only remained in his life for a short while, each either not being Natsu's ideal choice from the start or leaving of their own accord once they got bored with the whole sixty-one-hour workweek of a professor.

But Lucy? Lucy was different.

Right from the moment he'd seen her scrambling down the side of a school building, there was a uniqueness to her that hadn't gone away. She was quirky and weird at the best of times, but she was  _ kind.  _ It wasn't as if Natsu had set criteria for his perfect woman, and he wasn't shallow enough to go for a girl solely based on her looks, but Lucy had just  _ clicked _ for him.

It was the little things. All the little habits the headmistress had that she probably wasn't even aware of. The way she clammed up every time someone so much as paid compliment to her or the way she ran a neurotic hand through her hair any time she felt stressed. She was caring, conscientious, any damn synonym he could think of of the word 'kind'! She was perfect.

"Natsu?" Her timid voice drew him from his thoughts. Now that Lucy was coming down from her high, she felt the awkwardness of the street-facing window even more without the rapid euphoria blazing her system. "Is everything okay?"

Natsu sputtered for a second. "Y-yeah, absolutely."

He drew his hand from his pants, feeling slightly sobered by the realization that Lucy might mean more to him than anyone else in his life- Minus Igneel and Makarov. "What is it?" She asked with nervous curiosity.

He smiled at her, taking a second to appreciate the utter happiness he was feeling. "You might be the most amazing woman I have ever met."

"N-Natsu. Where is that coming from?"

Natsu chuckled at the sudden fuchsia spreading across Lucy's cheeks. She blinked at him, honestly just trying to comprehend the spontaneity of his words. "Nowhere. I'm realizing how much I appreciate you."

Her shoulders rolled forwards - a nervous habit more than a way to stretch the discomfort in her back from leaning on the sink too long. Lucy's face morphed into a look of contemplation. Here this guy was: A guy that had been nothing but gentle towards her, who had just given her a near mind-blowing orgasm without even asking her to return the favor before paying her a compliment that made her feel like her head was about to explode with bewilderment, who knew her as well as anybody could after knowing a person barely two weeks.

Gods, she was the luckiest girl sometimes! She thought with a bitter internal smile. It wasn't often that she was reminded of the nickname given to her by the staff of the Heartfilia estate. It certainly mellowed the buzzing joy she felt from his compliment.

"Thank you." She mumbled out, letting a smile settle on her lips.

He returned the gesture, grabbing her arms and rubbing his hands up and down them soothingly. They stood there for a few minutes, welcoming the silence between them. "We should probably get cleaned up again."

She grimaced, earning a chuckle from the dragon slayer. "I just showered."

"Well, we can shower together. For efficiency, of course."

"Of course." She smirked back at him. "For efficiency."

The plates in the sink wouldn't be getting washed for another few hours...


End file.
